Workers need decent salaries

EDITOR — Workers from all our provinces have long been complaining about very low salaries and are hoping to see a positive change after the elections.

It is very sad that almost all workers from all the sectors of the economy have been getting monthly salaries which cannot last until the next pay day.

The most affected ones include domestic workers, garden workers, messengers and security guards.

Most security guards do risky tasks as they sometimes are forced to work at very dangerous premises where they can easily be attacked or killed by robbers, but get peanuts at the end of the month.

Some of these security guards drive cash-intransit vehicles where some of their unlucky colleagues have lost their lives due to armed robbers which are on the prowl in our big cities.

These people should be respected and be given a living wage.

Some supermarket workers, who sometimes work from as early 5am to 10pm complain that apart from getting very low salaries, they were not delivered to their homes after working into mid night.

This exposes their life to danger.

I talked to some farm workers who were confident that after the election they expected their situation to improve.

Their employers were taking them for granted by giving them paltry salaries which are the lowest when compared to other farm workers in the Southern African region.

It is disturbing to see that the trade unions, which should represent the workers, have totally failed to do that and in fact chose to indulge in the party politics at the expense of the workers.

We hope that our country will be normal after elections so that struggling companies can be revived to enable them to pay their workers decent salaries. Mazvita Tombo