Ndamu Sandu
7 June 2008
WHEN Cosmas Benza (30), qualified as a chartered accountant in 2005, he hoped to receive commensurate remuneration.
The world opened its doors when an accounting firm he was working for offered him shareholding, plus a company car.
He worked there for barely a year, then packed his bags and crossed the Atlantic to Bermuda.
"I had no choice but to seek greener pastures. I discovered that with my salary it was going to be difficult to fend for my family," he told Standardbusiness last week.
Benza is another Zimbabwe professional who left for the proverbial greener pastures, following the economic meltdown that has reduced workers to penury.
For the past two years, the country has lost professionals to neighbouring countries at an alarming rate.
First, it was the engineers and artisans lured by South Africa's booming construction industry ahead of the 2010 World Cup. The exodus has extended to professions such as teaching and the hospitality trade, as the lure of the Rand across the Limpopo becomes irresistible.
While some companies continue weeping over the loss of key staffers, others have taken up the cudgels and put in place measures to halt the brain drain.
At one law firm, employees are given groceries every month, with the money being recovered over three months.
At Air Zimbabwe, senior employees are being paid in foreign currency. Hoteliers have written to the central bank to seek approval to pay key personnel in foreign currency.
Human resources experts note while it is a noble gesture, buying groceries for staff and paying them in forex, companies with no access to forex can at least index the salaries to the US$.
"If salaries are pegged to the US$ and using the inter-bank rates, it removes the need for salary negotiations," said Memory Nguwi, a human resources expert.
Nguwi, founding partner at a human resources and management consultancy firm, Organisation Excellence Consultants, proposes a minimum salary of US$100 a month with a cut-off date when the inter-bank rate would be applicable.
He said there was now a worrying trend where employees went to work "to maintain their jobs in the hope that things would improve in the future".
"In terms of basic salaries, most workers are not earning enough to go to work. They are going there for career reasons. They don't want a gap in their careers," he said.
Luxon Zembe, a management consultant says while the gesture by employers is noble, it has to be productivity-linked.
He says dishing out groceries to employees "is a crisis intervention which is not sustainable in the long run".
"We have to address the economy and stabilise the dollar by going back to production in industries and on the farms," he said.
Zembe said for workers to survive, they needed to earn salaries in line with global standards of US$1 a day set by the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations.
But he cautions that the rate at which the Zimbabwe dollar was losing value made it difficult for employers to cope.
"It's like a dog chasing its tail," he said.
Japhet Moyo, acting secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions told Standardbusiness what employers were doing was "fire-fighting" that did not address "the fundamentals" on how to run the economy.
"We can talk about employers paying in forex or buying groceries for employees but that does not address the problem. It is the issue of politics which people are scared to talk about," Moyo said.
Analysts say a comprehensive package to revive the economy would cushion employees from the harsh economic conditions.
Zimbabwe has the highest inflation -- 1 700 000% -- in the world, an unprecedented situation in a country outside a war zone.
Analysts say inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the currency, reducing workers to paupers.
Zembe says as a way out, the country can adopt a more stable currency such as the US dollar, though there are challenges on the availability of the adopted currency.
"In practical terms, people are thinking in terms of US$," he said.
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