Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) workers have declared incapacitation, saying they can no longer afford basic needs such as shelter, transport, food and school fees due to low salaries.
In an urgent letter seen by Pindula News, the Zimbabwe Revenue and Allied Workers Trade Union (ZIMRATU), which represents the workers, said that the erosion of the value of its members’ salaries has made them near destitute.
In a letter addressed to the ZIMRA Commissioner General, ZIMRATU president, Dominic Manyangadze said their housing allowances were pegged at US$75, payable in the local currency at the prevailing interbank rate while landlords were demanding rentals in United States dollars. The letter reads in part:
We are now incapacitated to afford basic human needs like shelter, transport, food and education, among others. It is disheartening that the salary of a ZIMRA worker can no longer afford basic food items due to inflationary pressures and the continuous dollarisation of the economy.
Manyangadze said ZIMRA workers are performing well under difficult conditions but their efforts are not being recognised. He said:
The ZIMRA workers have continued to perform exceptionally well even in the face of very difficult working and economic conditions but are now having to supplement their incomes from side hustles.
Manyangadze said ZIMRA workers’s salaries were last reviewed in the first half of 2023 and as a result, they are now incapacitated.
He said the ZIMRATU members will not be able to fully engage with the employer’s business daily to enable them to supplement their incomes to cover transport, rentals, and school fees that are being demanded in foreign currency.