Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo says current job cuts are painful but they are lawful and represent the necessary self-correction to enable takeoff.
The job cuts, which were sparked by a Supreme Court ruling on 17 July that allowed employers to dismiss workers after giving them three months’ notice without necessarily paying them a retrenchment package, have already seen more than 20 000 losing their jobs.
“The economy is not a bogeyman,” Moyo said on his twitter page. “Current job cuts are painful but they're lawful & represent necessary self-correction to enable takeoff!”
“Employees losing their jobs now need to be assisted to start afresh through SMEs, land reform, Indigenisation & economic empowerment!” he said.
The government, however, seems to have been rattled by the public outcry over the job losses and has introduced a labour amendment bill to reverse the dismissals.
President Robert Mugabe has recalled Parliament which was on recess until 1 September to resume sitting on Tuesday to pass the Labour Amendment Bill.
Industry, on the other hand, welcomed the Supreme Court ruling as it allows the sector to rationalise its labour force.
Moyo still firmly believes that the government can create 2.2 million jobs which the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front promised in its election manifesto.
He says agriculture alone can create the jobs. And he also believes that the economy will recover.
“I see it rebounding big time on the back of the irreversible Indigenisation & empowerment bedrock now in place!” he said.
Central Bank governor John Mangudya also said Zimbabwe was on the rebound but Zimbabweans had to remove their negative thinking.
“Zimbabwe can and will rise,” he said in his monetary policy statement. “This hypothesis is based on the considered view that the most difficult phase in Zimbabwe’s economic development path is over. The country is now on a ‘take-off’ phase or mode which calls for the power of positive thinking and contentment (not complacent) in keeping on moving on the steady progress made so far.”
“Going beyond the stabilisation ‘road’ requires simple and decisive pragmatic solutions for unleashing economic recovery. We all have a part to play on this national recovery narrative and to remove the ‘cancer’ or ‘potholes’ of negativity and discontentment.”
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