ZCTU pleads for pensioners welfare and protectio
Staff Writer
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) says Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s 2026 National Budget largely ignored workers and pensioners — particularly through its continued failure to reform pension and insurance systems.
ZCTU Secretary General Tirivanhu Marimo said the budget “glaringly ignores the crisis facing pensioners,” with no measures to restore value, protect savings, or cushion retirees from the worsening cost of living.
He warned that pensioners remain trapped with “erosion-prone pensions that cannot sustain dignity or survival,” while workers continue to pay into schemes that offer no meaningful security.
Marimo said the refusal to address the vulnerabilities in the insurance and pensions sector represents “a national betrayal,” especially in a mineral-rich country where social protection should be anchored on solid, well-regulated long-term savings.
“At a time when the country is generating billions from minerals, it is unacceptable that pensioners remain unprotected and workers have no guarantee that their contributions will hold value,” he said.
Turning to broader concerns, Marimo said the budget is anchored on what he described as “blood-sucking taxation” that offers no relief to already underpaid workers.
The ZCTU noted that government’s refusal to adjust PAYE tax bands or raise the tax-free threshold pushes workers deeper into poverty.
He added that the nominal reduction of the IMTT tax on ZiG transactions—from 2% to 1.5%—is immediately “neutralised” by the increase of VAT from 15% to 15.5%, a shift he said will hit low-income earners the hardest.
“A meaningful tax-free threshold in USD is what workers needed. Instead, this budget continues to extract from those with the least,” he said.
The ZCTU also condemned the government’s neglect of unemployment protection in an economy where joblessness and informality are widespread. Marimo said that despite the scale of unemployment, the budget makes no provision for unemployment benefits, leaving the majority without basic safety nets.
He further criticised measures affecting informal traders and SMEs, saying the government has chosen to tighten the tax net instead of supporting formalisation.
He cited overlapping taxes—presumptive tax, VAT, IMTT—often charged on the same transaction, which he said will suffocate small businesses and discourage digital payments.
“The proposed cash withdrawal levy will only drive people away from the banking sector and promote mattress banking,” Marimo warned, adding that early indications showed key social sectors, including health, face further erosion of service delivery under the new fiscal plan.
Marimo said workers had expected a pro-poor, pro-employment budget that stimulates local demand by lowering taxes and improving disposable incomes. Instead, he argued, the budget “sacrifices workers while deepening inequalities” in a country endowed with vast mineral wealth.
The ZCTU has now appealed to Parliament to reject what it calls an anti-worker budget and push the government to revise it into “a humane, people-centred” document that protects workers, pensioners, the unemployed, and the poor.
