Among the news coming from crisis-tormented Zimbabwe there is this peculiar story of workers at a government-owned company exercising an unusual form of protest: sleeping in at work.
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At least 70 workers from Kingstons Limited, which specialises in stationery and music, have been sleeping at the Kingstons’ head office for a week now. The workers, from eleven branches across Harare, are protesting at poor working conditions and a paltry salary. … The workers are accusing the government of paying them “slave wages” as they can hardly cover transport costs with their monthly wages. They reportedly earn as little as Z$11 million a month, when transport costs each worker an average of Z$20 million. … According to statistics released by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the dilemma of Kingstons workers represents the plight of over 80% of workers who can no longer survive on their salaries.
The situation at Kingstons may seem like a rather insignificant episode dwarfed by the magnitude of Zimbabwe’s economic problems. But it is symptomatic of the government’s mismanagement of the economy, where many of those problems originated from. Kingstons is the country’s leading book seller and stationer, but its success has been endangered since the government acquired it from private owners in 2003. Subsequently, the company has been used as a propaganda tool against the opposition. Earlier this year, for instance, Kingstons bookstores under pressure from the government refused to sell a book by a renowned Zimbabwean politician Edgar Tekere critical of President Mugabe.
As the country’s economy is hitting the rock bottom and inflation flies off the charts, the government continues to suppress political descent, and can no longer secure the basic macroeconomic and institutional environment necessary for the economy to function. Needless to say, that leads to popular dissatisfaction and strikes such as the one at Kingstons. Some of those strikes are especially debilitating: striking magistrates and state prosecutors are crippling the court system. But their plight is understandable. As the IHT reports, “magistrate earns about 20 million Zimbabwe dollars a month, or US$15 (€10) at the dominant black market exchange rate, a third less than the official poverty line.” That buys only about two gallons of gasoline – and creates enormous incentives for corruption.
As the government is increasingly unable to meet its budgetary obligations, it’s becoming clearer every day that the ones truly sleeping are not the workers at Kingstons, but instead Zimbabwe’s leaders who are asleep at the wheel.
Published Date: November 26, 2007