From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:ZIMBABWE: SOCIAL DIMENSION FUND -- AN AFTER-THOUGHT
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 03:51:06 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Africa, southern
Title: ZIMBABWE: SOCIAL DIMENSION FUND -- AN AFTER-THOUGHT


an inter press service feature

by tafadzwa matimba-mumba

harare, oct 28 (ips) -- when the government announced that a
''social dimensions of adjustment'' (sda) fund would be created
to help hard-hit zimbabweans as a result of its austerity
measures, many people heaved a sigh of relief.

but as retrenchment plans become a reality, there are fears
the fund is a ''face-saving measure'' added by the government
to an already-drawn structural adjustment programme (sap).

''the social dimensions fund was not formulated as part of
the economic structural adjustment package, but was formed only
after criticism from politicians to the world bank'', a zimbabwe
congress of trade unions (zctu) economist says.

''it was an after-thought'', tapiwa mashakanda told ips,
referring to the sda for which the the government has set aside
some 200 million zimbabwe dollars (about 40 million u.s.).

more than 10,000 people have already been retrenched under the
austerity measures started in 1991. of these, 5,000 held
private-sector jobs, says jim torond, president of zimbabwe
national chamber of commerce (zncc).

about 40,000 employees from the private and public sectors
are to be retired over the five-year adjustment period ending
1995.

the retrenched will join more than 200,000 job-seekers
entering the labour market yearly where only 30,000 jobs are
created. unemployment in this nation of 11 million presently
stands at two million.

through the world bank and international monetary fund (imf)-
imposed adjustment programme, government subsidies, especially
in health and education, are being removed.

in an attempt to cushion the workers to be retrenched, the
government set up the social dimensions fund, designed to
boost training and employment creation among vulnerable groups.

this, the government hopes, will result in creating viable
small and medium-sized businesses.

a social welfare component to provide food, education and
health also falls under the programme.

despite the start of the retrenchment excercise, the
programme of action remains very much on paper, while conditions
streamlining its beneficiaries have become cause for concern to
organisations representing workers. (more/ips)


zimbabwe: social (2)

''to date we don't have any records of any people who have
benefitted from the fund. it exists largely on paper. the
modalities are not clear on how to go about assisting the
retrenched'', says mashakanda.

''to benefit from the fund you have to have a viable
marketable project'', explains the information officer with the
employers' confederation of zimbabwe (emcoz).

''if you don't have viable ideas, then your chances of
benefiting from the project are doomed'', margaret mwalo told
ips wednesday.

according to mwalo, there are strict regulations determining
fund beneficiaries. these include proof that the retrenched
persons live with their families. the regulation serves to
further marginalise workers who support family members living in
the rural areas, mwalo adds.

''our target group are the retrenched -- people with skills
and who have an ability to start business. it all depends on the
level of education and how able they are to receive training'',
says torond.

he says the zncc is geared to assist retrenched workers in
skills training, and to get loans to start businesses from the
government-controlled fund.

an increase in companies will widen the tax base and the
formal sector where only 6,000 companies pay tax in zimbabwe
today, torond says.

but the fund has also been criticised for ignoring the people
who were already poor before the introduction of the sap.

''the fund has a weakness in that it seeks to identify the
'new poor' as affected by the adjustment programme so it does
not really deal with the structural poverty in zimbabwe. poverty
here is taken as transitory'', mashakanda says.

the ''old poor'', according to mashakanda, include domestic
workers, the unemployed and unskilled and persons in unstable
job situations. these make up more than 65 percent of the
population.

although they are the major victims of the government's past
economic policies, their survival during the adjustment
programme seems to be of little significance, mashakanda says.
(end/ips/tm-m/apc/ar/92)
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