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By Marlvin Ngiza
Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) has called upon the government to quickly attend to a dire situation of incapacitation faced by media personalities in the country.
This follows a reported outcry by journalists at the national publisher, Zimpapers, who claimed that their salaries have been eroded by high inflation which is currently prevailing in the country, which the union said was a true reflection of the suffering faced by journalists in the fraternity as a whole.
In a statement released recently, ZUJ Secretary General Perfect Hlongwane stressed that it was worrisome that the big wing in the media fraternity has been failing to well remunerate its staff hence the need for the government as the majority shareholder to quickly address the situation and bring back the company to normalcy.
“The Union is disturbed to know that our members at ZimPapers, particularly the Chronicle, Sunday News, uMthunywa, and B-Metro have declared incapacitation to report for duty due to the meagre salaries that they receive from their employer. We are in solidarity with our brothers and sisters at Zimpapers as their situation is reflective of the dire situation facing many journalists across the industry who are struggling to put food on the table.
“In the fullness of time we expect a win-win situation between Zimpapers and its workers and what is sad is the reporters who have declared incapacitation work for the oldest and arguably the country’s largest media house which must be a leader and exemplary in remunerating and motivating its workers. We also call upon Government as the majority shareholder to intervene and help the struggling workers so that the current impasse is solved for normalcy to return at the company, “said Hlongwane
It was also expressed that reporters have become unable to report for duty and other areas which needed urgent attention were the lessening of workload and retooling of the working environment.
“Our members are now unable to commute to and from their workstations as public transport operators are now demanding foreign currency which the reporters don’t earn. What’s obtaining at the moment is that reporters at these publications are paid an equivalent of USD150 whose buying power has been eroded by the continuous inflation and price increases. Our members are now unable to commute to and from their workstations as public transport operators are now demanding foreign currency which the reporters don’t earn.
“Other challenges include severely understaffed newsrooms and a huge workload, no vehicles to take reporters for assignments, heavily curtailed data allocations, basic tools like pens and pencils, and cancellation of out-of-station allowances, “he added
The Union has set salary increase to at least US$550 per month for the least paid, retooling of the newsroom to ensure they are adequately equipped for the job, roadworthy and safe vehicles as they are deployed to cover their diaries as measures that needed to be put in place for it’s members to become able to report for duty.
