Nevanji Munyaradzi Chiondegwa.
“I would also like to dispel another notion that has been shared widely to say that previously during the Government of National Unity era, the minimum salary was US$540 per month. That’s also not correct because we know that at the time the exchange rate in the market was US$1: ZW$ 2,500.”
The above statement was said by Permanent Secretary George Guvamatanga during a recent press statement by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, on the new measures adopted by Government to stabilize the economy.
It has created such a furore with many calling the former Barclay’s Bank Chief Executive a liar but in actual fact, he is correct on the figures but wrong on the period.
It could have been the slip of the tongue, or mix-up of times, both of which are normal to humanity.
Our penchant, as a people, to major on minors has made us miss the bigger picture sometimes
Anyways, below are the facts.
During the GNU, civil servants started off at $100 and were awarded a salary increment in 2009 September that saw the least paid worker take home USD179, this was gradually increased to a point were workers were getting USD247 by 2013.
The salaries were described by the the the Finance Minister Tendai Biti as the highest in the region and unsustainable.
They had left Treasury with USD273!
By December 2013, government workers were earning USD294 and Government awarded a USD79 salary increment to take them to USD373.
By comparison, workers in Zambia were getting USD132, Mozambique USD112, Botswana USD105. Only South Africa had a higher minimum wage at USD646.
It must be noted that by June 2013, the PDL was at USD540!
But inclusive of allowances Government workers were taking home USD419 for teachers and yet the Minister of Finance intended to cut the wage bill raising the unsustainability of same.
This establishes first that Tendai Biti as Finance Minister never paid civil servants a salary of USD540!
In fact, USD540 was their salary in 2018 before the removal of the 1:1 parity and the period PS Guvamatanga refers to as the rate being at 1:2.5 making it very factual.
What should have been the guideline for anyone listening to his speech is not the time period but the salaries figure which most workers unions have been arguing and basing their demands on.
That figure was paid to civil servants by Patrick Chinamasa not Tendai Biti.
To back PS Guvamatanga’s assertions, in February 2022, John Legat, CEO of Imara Asset Management said,
“Rising prices are resulting in higher wage demands not just from the public sector unions but also within the private sector. It will be critically important though that real wages are contained. Demands that USD wages should return to October 2018 levels make little sense since wages at that time were not actually being paid in USD but in RTGS$. RTGS$ were worth 50% of a USD at that time.”
Legat insisted that nobody earned that much then in real terms, and government and other employers must not fold to such demands.
Legat insisted RTGS$500 was really worth US$250 in September 2018.
“After the announcement of the introduction of USD nostro accounts in the MPS of October 2018, when Government first broke the illusion that an RTGS$ was a USD, the rate collapsed from 2 to 1 to 8 to 1,” said Legat.
So, had the usual detractors not been interested in fault finding but doing a little digging, they would have found out that factually, PS Guvamatanga was on point!
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