BULAWAYO held this year’s Workers’ Day commemorations at the Small City Hall, a departure from yesteryears when thousands of workers would converge at the White City Stadium to celebrate the day.
But even then, attendance was so poor the Small City Hall was almost empty.
Bulawayo used to be the country’s industrial hub in the early years after independence.
However, many buildings of the once giant Belmont industrial centre are now home to churches of various denomination as many companies have downsized, relocated or closed shop because of the harsh economic environment.
In an interview, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Western Region chairperson Ambrose Sibindi, said the Workers Day was a grim reminder of the city’s deindustrialisation.
“We are seeing that in the majority of cases we are having companies that have closed and some operations having started to scale down,” Sibindi said.
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“That alone is not good for us, meaning to say that this has caused a high level of unemployment in Bulawayo and in Zimbabwe as a whole simply because companies are not functioning.
"I know there was a promise from the government sometime that they would create two million jobs, but this has not materialised and employment figures keep going down.”
The majority of the working population in the city are now into informal vending while others have crossed borders to South Africa in search of greener pastures.
“Yes, some may say that people are employed in the informal sector, but truly speaking those people are not formalised and no one can come up with clear statistics on how many there are and some are even operating in areas which are not designated and proper for their trading,” Sibindi added.
Former ZCTU western region regional officer Percy Mcijo, who now heads Streetwise Informal Traders Association (Swita) said Bulawayo was now a ghost city after about 60% of companies closed last year.
Indications are that a significant number of companies in the city are now operating at between 20% and 25% capacity.
“Our surveys indicate that between 40% and 45% of companies relocated and about 75% of workers also lost their jobs either through retrenchment, company closures, relocation or downsizing,” he said.
“This increased poverty levels while the crime rate also rose.
“Government needs to have deliberate policies to attract investment in the city and it must fund the revival of the Cold Storage Commission (CSC) and National Railways of Zimbabwe.”
In the central business district, most shops have been subdivided into tuckshops or second hand clothing and grocery shops.
"Workers must advocate for an all stakeholders meeting with the government facilitating the process and providing necessary resources to retool the industry,” Mcijo said.
During the government of national unity between 2009 and 2013, the Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas fund (Dimaf) was launched to capitalise affected industries with Bulawayo being one of the most affected areas.
The government allocated US$40 million towards Dimaf, but stakeholders said the funding was inadequate to meet the demand of the companies affected.
The government also introduced the $70 million Zimbabwe Economic and Trade Revival Facility, but the initiative did little to revive closed industries.
Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers Union secretary general Justice Chinhema, said mine workers were suffering in silence due to unfair labour practices.
“The government and employers in the sector need to lend an ear to the concerns of the mine workers as much as possible to ensure that they are addressed, not the current situation where workers have been turned into slaves by employers," he said.