Economy

Speaking at the Economic Debate Breakfast Meeting in Harare hosted by Zimbabwe Economic Society in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung on the 27th of October 2022, ZCIEA National President Lorraine Sibanda said Social Solidarity Economy can be a pathway to economic growth and sustainability of livelihoods of the Informal Economy. She added that if workers in the informal economy work in Social Solidarity Economic groups they will be able to do bigger projects which are sustainable and this will also ensure a wholesome approach to the formalisation of their economic activities.

She emphasized that there is a need for the inclusion of the informal economy in the national budget as part of supporting the growth and transition to formality. ZCIEA National President Lorraine Sibanda commends the efforts by the Government through the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare in recognising the importance of the informal economy in Zimbabwe. ZCIEA and other informal economy players played a pivotal role during the development and validation processes of the National Formalisation Strategy.

President Sibanda said decriminalisation and depoliticisation of workspaces are very critical in order to free the environment and workspace in which workers in the Informal Economy operate. She added that currently violence, harassment and confiscation of goods are rampant because workers in the informal economy are not regarded as legitimate workers. “There is a need for the government’s intervention and enforcement of the law targeting the space barons”, said President Sibanda.
During the Economic Debate Breakfast Meeting, ZCIEA Secretary General Wisborn Malaya also shared lived realities of Informal workers and traders in Binga who survived by fishing from the Zambezi River. He shared that there is no industry in Binga, the only industry is the Zambezi river where people from Binga fish from. These people don’t have access to fishing licenses yet they are citizens of Binga and if they fish without a license they will be arrested. For them to access a license they have to hire a license from a person in Harare who owns the license. The same scenario is happening in Kariba. We share the Zambezi River with Zambia, the Zambian policy allows their people to fish and they come and encroach into the Zimbabwean side and keep fishing whilst our own are not allowed to fish. Secretary General Malaya said the issue of pro-poor policy is important to promote our own.

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