the monitor

Inflation ills and evils

We hear unions and government sat around the table for five days and finally came up with a decision to increase salaries for civil servants by five percent. The powers that be are trying. Granted, this is not high praise. It’s like saying that somebody is marginally nicer than Hitler. But it’s something.

Usually salary increases are met with euphoria, anger and inflation. Some are saying, however, a five percent increase is as useless as teats on a bull. For workers in the lower rung things couldn’t be redder- it’s like a tomato puree production factory. For them five percent is like a kick in the nuts from someone wearing steel-toed jackboots. When the calculations were done a few truths hit home – diets must be rationalised, lifestyles must be readjusted and small houses must be shed etc.

Whenever landlords hear about salary increases they lose their minds. Landlords usually follow salary negotiations with keen interest. Sometimes, in fact most times, people involved in salary negotiations are landlords. There’s always that invisible hand of a landlord trying to bump up the increment. Whilst they are officially representing workers they also double as landlord representatives. There’s a direct correlation between salary hikes and rental increases. They know that if they achieve the increment they will be smiling all the way to the Orange Money outlets or the bank. Rent now costs random new numbers that your landlord makes every few months.

Editor's Comment
Gov't must empower DCEC urgently

As the new Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) government takes charge, it must act decisively to equip the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) with the tools, laws, and resources needed to combat graft. The time for half-measures is over. DCEC Director-General, Botlhale Makgekgenene’s, recent address to the Public Accounts Committee paints a stark picture. Over five years, leadership instability, chronic underfunding and weak...

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