Workers’ Day in Zimbabwe: If there is any single thing that clearly demonstrates how Zanu PF has been a total disaster in power in Zimbabwe – an unmitigated failure – over the past 45 years of its calamitous rule, first under Robert Mugabe and now President Emmerson Mnangagwa, it is surely unemployment.
There are many indicators of failure, but unemployment stands out. A lot of figures are being bandied about on the rate of unemployment in Zimbabwe, from 8% to 95%, the biggest variation range one can find for estimates of any economic indicator.
Officially, unemployment was 21.8% in the third quarter of 2024.
Yet practically well over 90% of able-bodied Zimbabweans of working age are jobless. An overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans survive on the informal sector – hand-to-mouth, some live in abject poverty. Even university graduates are now vendors in the streets.
Millions have fled the country to South Africa, Botswana and other nations in the region and overseas to escape chronic unemployment, poverty and suffering.
Today on May Day, Zimbabwean workers will largely be mourning as usual how the country has been wantonly vandalised and destroyed through leadership, governance and policy failures, as well as patronage, corruption and incompetence.
Due to economic failure, lack of investment and extended periods of massive de-industrialisation following thousands of company closures, jobs are as scarce as hen’s teeth, to use that cliche.
