We will deliver jobs: Zanu PF

via We will deliver jobs: Zanu PF – NewsDay Zimbabwe August 25, 2015

President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party insists it will deliver on its 2,2 million jobs promise despite signs of economic and social implosion seemingly everywhere in Zimbabwe.

by RICHARD CHIDZA

Party spokesperson and Economic Development and Investment Promotions minister Simon Khaya-Moyo told NewsDay yesterday that Zanu PF will turn the millions of informal jobs into formal ones.

“It is possible yes, to create the jobs we promised. You can see we are working hard, but most of the jobs around are informal. So government is putting a lot of money into the informal sector as support to formalise these jobs,” said Khaya-Moyo.

In the run-up to the July 2013 harmonised polls won by Mugabe, Zanu PF promised to create 2,2 million jobs under its election manifesto turned economic blue-print, ZimAsset.

The Zanu PF spin-doctor’s comments come in the wake of massive job cuts in both the private and public sectors in the aftermath of the July 17th Supreme Court judgment.

However, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary-general Japhet Moyo said Zanu PF was “caught in a time warp”.

“It does not surprise us that Khaya-Moyo is claiming Zanu PF will create the jobs that the party promised. For politicians propaganda is important in a war situation and Zanu PF has been in the trenches since the time of Mbuya Nehanda,” Moyo said.

He added that there was a section of the country still in denial over the country’s economic situation.

“Our problem is that we are in denial and Zimbabwe is seemingly divided into a section that truly believes that the economy is on the rebound, jobs are being created and everything is fine. If you go to the State media that is their reality,” the ZCTU chief said.

“The private media is the direct opposite and you people are enemies of the State in the eyes of the establishment. That is also the situation within the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF). Now, because as a country we have not agreed on the diagnosis, it is also difficult or almost impossible to agree on the prescription for the country’s problems.”

Moyo said ZCTU was of the view that the kind of jobs envisaged were respectable and provided people with security, medial insurance and a pension and “all the good things that come with descent jobs including being able to send children to school.”

“Government has made it very clear that in their opinion, the informal sector is the new economy. If Khaya-Moyo means that Zanu PF will create 2,2 million vendors then that is very possible,” he said.

Opposition MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu concurred.

“What is feasible is that Zanu PF will create 2,2 million job losses in the next 36 months, at the current rate that is very possible. Zanu PF will without doubt be able to create 2,2 million loafers by 2018,” Gutu said. “In the last three weeks alone Zimbabwe has shed 25 000 jobs while in the last 700 days since the 2013 elections 150 000 people have lost gainful employment”.

In an opinion published by an online publication last week, former Industry minister and opposition MDC leader Welshman Ncube painted a bleak picture of Zimbabwe under Zanu PF.

“Zanu PF destroyed just about every sector of the economy, and its enablers be it power, transport, general infrastructure, etc. They are responsible for the sorry state of business in the country. No law can ever decree successful business.”