By Own Correspondent

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) says it has moved to convert about 65% of workers’ salaries to foreign currency in the wake of statutory deductions on local currency earnings.

The details contained in a Memo from the city’s HR Department addressed to various council departments from council’s human capital directors’ office revealed the developments.

"In order to maintain the US$ amount that employees received during the previous payroll (March, 2024), 64, 5103% of every employee’s basic salary was converted to forex (US$) component,” the memo reads.

The Memo reveals that NSSA increased its ZWL$12 million of basic salary, deduction threshold to  Only 35% of basic salary remained to absorb ZiG deductions from various service providers.

Such changes have reportedly seen the City’s workers taking home peanuts in local currency.

On April 5, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduced a new “structured currency” ZiG to tackle the ongoing economic crisis in the country. The new currency is backed by gold, and other precious minerals, and will circulate alongside other foreign currencies.

The developments have seen markets have seen workers struggling to receive adequate change when travelling to work every day, in the process doubling the cost of living.

Despite the central bank also reaffirmed  its unwavering commitment to ensuring the public’s convenience by providing adequate cash and also assured the  efficiency , safety and soundness of the national payments system, which is well suited to support electronic means of payment, workers continue to carry the heavy brunt of the load on their shoulders.