"Defending And Sustaining Worker Welfare Must Be At The Heart Of Our Policies," ED

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that it is of much vitality for the government to protect the informal sector that has so far sustained livelihoods of many people.

He made the remarks in his Workers Day speech to the nation in which the president acknowledged the significance of the sector as far as the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is concerned. Mnangagwa said:

These subsectors have sustained the greater number of national livelihoods as our nation battles myriad adversities, whether natural or man-made.

This means our programmes aimed at defending and sustaining worker welfare must put these two sub-sectors at the heart of our policies.

Ironically, his speech is delivered when local government authorities, equipped with a directive from the Ministry of Local Government, are demolishing informal traders’ market stalls.

The demolitions can be seen as a way by local authorities to formalise the informal sector which they have often described as a “hard to tax” sector.

The Workers’ Day comes when the unemployment rate in the country is very high following the closure of companies who are citing the deteriorating state of affairs in the country.

More: Zim Morning Post