ZIMBABWE Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president recently told finance minister, Mthuli Ncube in his face that the recently announced 2020 national budget is anti-worker and will exacerbate poverty among the country’s workforce.

Mutasa made the bold remarks during the post 2020 budget breakfast meeting which was held at Harare International Conference Center a day after the budget presentation.

Ncube and other high ranking ruling party officials were also present at the event where the ZCTU president was not deterred by the tense atmosphere and registered his displeasure.    

He said the post budget dialogue was different because unionists are used to   dialogue with policy makers at very funny places either Chikurubi or at Remand prison.

Said Mutasa, “If they (government officials) do not want to dialogue with us they send some guys with teargas and canisters so this is a development that is well appreciated where we are in a better place. I therefore hope there will be freedom after this speech.”

Mutasa said labour would have appreciated the post budget dialogue it if the process had started off with widespread consultations.

“With respect on behalf of labour there is nothing much for workers and poor citizens, we take the mantra associated with this document as rhetoric since we have heard it before. It can only be pro-poor when we taste it on our tables.

“Currently we can’t buy bread, clothes and rentals but these were the major issues that we thought will be addressed. We have seen a lot of complicated statistics in the budget. We were expecting to see figures on the numbers of people who have dropped out of school because of austerity and the previous budget but we did not get those,” he said.

The labour president described the national budget as “elitist and bookish leaving out what the ordinary folk down in Nyanga   and Mahenge will think about it.”

He bemoaned the fact that the budget came at a time when the country is going through a second major economic crisis the first one having been in 2008.

“We were therefore expecting a paradigm shift, but worryingly the budget is premised on illusionary stability and purported successes of the Transitional Stabilisation Program similar to “kuzvifonera”(beating your own drum).

“There is no stability minister, I know you are a professor and if I write an exam and say this economy is stable, you will definitely fail me.”

Mutasa said labour was expecting the issue of currency to be resolved and reminded the treasury boss that workers who were earning US$400 before adopting the mono-currency regime are now getting an equivalent of US$ 40 while pensioners are getting US$5.

“Without national cohesion and ownership, this budget is only going to be guaranteed through the use of baton sticks, teargas and canisters,” he added.