Zimbabweans Groaning Under Burden Of Excessive Taxation - ZCTU

End-of-year message by Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Acting Secretary General Kudakwashe Munengiwa:

As we enter the festive season, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) notes with regret that 2024 has been a difficult year for workers.

It is a year they would want to forget quickly and a year that can be best described as “annus horribilis”. The much-anticipated improvement to the plight of the working people did not materialize.

During the course of the year, the working people of Zimbabwe have been confronted with among others:

• Lack of serious consultation on serious policy issues like the introduction of the ZiG currency
• Unilateral devaluation of the ZiG without due care of its implications to the workers and ordinary Zimbabweans.
• Poverty/ slavery wages that have failed to match the poverty datum line of over US$500 against a wage of around US$300;
• Shocking price increases and over-the-roof inflation levels;
• Punitive taxation regime on workers and Zimbabweans as a whole;
• A health delivery system that has failed to recover from collapse and innocent Zimbabweans continue to die of treatable diseases;
• A collapsed education system that has been characterized by chaos and constant threats of industrial action from teachers over low salaries;
• Erratic supply of water and electricity that has decimated industrial production; Loss of jobs, high unemployment and underemployment levels;
• Low capacity utilization in industry
• Serious brain drain in the health sector and other critical sectors
• Informalisation of the economy;
• Institutional collapse, decay and corruption;
• Endemic poverty afflicting in excess of 80% of the population;
• Threats, arrests of trade unionists, civic leaders by a paranoid state;

Given the above, therefore there has been nothing much to celebrate in 2024 as workers continue to suffer immensely.

The economic situation has certainly not been kind to Zimbabweans. Let us take this Christmas and New Year break not to ponder on what could have been, but to ponder on what to do about it in order to improve our lives.

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Workers should come back prepared to fight against economic haemorrhage as the year 2025 also looks gloomy for workers.

The Government has already put in place a highly punishing taxation regime. So desperate is the Finance Minister that his 2025 budget is hinged on brutal taxation by introducing other taxes such as Fast Food Tax, Betting Tax and Plastic Bag tax.

The Minister should realize that overtaxing a nation can have negative consequences as people will begin to think on ways to evade paying taxes; it can lead to dissatisfaction, protests, and even revolution.

Excessive taxation can also make a nation less competitive in the global market, potentially leading to reduced foreign investment.

He should also realise that excessive taxation can limit individual freedom and choice, as people have less disposable income to make their own decisions.

Ultimately, high tax rates can cause brain drain as it drives talented individuals to seek opportunities in lower-tax countries

Despite this, the ZCTU wishes you a peaceful and accident-free Christmas and New Year. Let us all meet in 2025, ready to take forward the workers’ struggle in whatever form.

More: Pindula News