WHEN PEANUTS BECOME PAY – A HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE
ZimRights Statement on Workers’ Day 2026
“The Constitution of Zimbabwe under Section 65(1) states that ‘every person has the right to fair and safe labour practices and standards and to be paid a fair and reasonable wage.’”
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) joins the world in observing International Workers’ Day. Today we speak plainly: across Zimbabwe, working people are enduring a systemic violation of their most basic human rights. They are underpaid, overtaxed while destitute, excluded from economic governance, and stripped of the right to organise. Millions are locked out of work entirely. This is not a failing economy, it is a profound human rights injustice.
Section 65(1) of our Constitution guarantees a fair and reasonable wage. Yet the legal minimum wage is just $150per month. Agricultural workers earn as little as US80; formal employees average $253. Meanwhile, the Poverty Datum Line exceeds $900.
Meanwhile, the workers day, we stand in solidarity with
- The nurse in a public hospital who cannot afford food and rent yet is required to carry the health of the nation.
- The teacher whose salary is not enough for a month’s supply of groceries, yet they are entrusted with moulding Zimbabwe’s future leaders.
- The domestic worker scrubbing floors for $80
- The retail cashier standing nine hours or $100
- The security guard sleeping at the mall gate.
- The informal trader with no pension or protection.
- The miner risking death for a few dollars.
- The truck driver weeks away,
- The young graduate on an unpaid internship,
- The child labourer in a gold pit,
- The police officer who risks his life for a salary that forces his to solicit bribes to survive.
- The soldier who defends the nation’s borders but cannot defend his own family from hunger.
- The civil society organisation worker who advocates for human rights and livelihoods while her own right to a living wage is denied
- and the 58% of unemployed youth locked out entirely.
These earnings do not sustain life. They are a direct and continuing violation of a constitutional human right—for every worker, in every sector, without exception.
Workers generate the nation’s wealth yet are systematically excluded from the spaces where economic policies are designed. Budgets, wage ceilings, and national priorities are set without meaningful worker participation. The Tripartite Negotiating Forum lacks independence and authority. To tax people without giving them a genuine voice in how those taxes are spent is fundamentally undemocratic – a violation of the right to political participation (Section 67) and just administrative conduct (Section 68).
The Labour Amendment Act No. 11 of 2023 imposes 1 to 5 years imprisonment for participation in lawful strike action. The State that presides over starvation wages has criminalised the last peaceful tool workers possess, the right to withdraw labour. This directly violates the right to freedom of association (Section 66) and Zimbabwe’s binding obligations under ILO Conventions 87 and 98. It is a chilling assault on civil liberties.
An estimated 35% of children aged 5 to 17 are in child labour, with 26% engaged in hazardous work – in mines, on tobacco farms, on waste dumps. Boys as young as nine descend into mining pits. Girls are forced into marriage before 18 (21.2% affected). Zimbabwe has ratified international conventions prohibiting these practices, but enforcement is virtually absent. This is not a side issue but a gross violation of the rights to dignity, education, and freedom from exploitation (Sections 51, 75, 81).
Zimbabwe is among the 30 most unequal countries globally (Gini coefficient 0.503). The wealthiest 10% control 59% of national income; the poorest 50% receive just 9.2%. Such extreme concentration of resources, while the majority lack life-sustaining wages, violates the right to equality (Section 56). Visible opulence alongside mass destitution is not economic growth – it is a human rights obscenity.
Youth unemployment (ages 15-24) stands at 58.2%. Half of all young Zimbabweans are NEET – not in employment, education, or training. Graduates hawk goods on roadsides, not because they lack talent, but because the State has offered no credible employment strategy. A society that cannot provide work for its young people, or forces them into hazardous, undeclared labour, violates the right to work (Section 65) and the right to human dignity (Section 51).
Drawing on our People’s Human Rights Manifesto, we demand:
- A constitutional living wage – no worker shall earn below the Poverty Datum Line (paid in a stable currency.
- Immediate repeal of all provisions criminalising peaceful strikes. Honour ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
- End child labour now, launch multi-agency inspections of mines, farms, and commercial sites; prosecute employers, not children.
- Meaningful worker representation in all economic governance forums, including the budget process and Tripartite Negotiating Forum.
- Tax transparency and a public audit of extreme wealth, easing of taxes for all workers, especially those earning below the poverty line.
- Protection for informal workers, extend labour law coverage to the the workforce in the informal sector; cease violent evictions of vendors.
Finally, to the workers, you teach our children, tend our sick, and build our towns. For this, you have received salaries that cannot sustain life, criminalization of your resistance, and a public discourse that normalises your suffering. Extreme inequality and exploitation are the result of policy choices and institutional failures that can be corrected – and must be.
On this Workers’ Day, demand the dignity that is your constitutional right. Demand earnings that pay for life. Demand a seat at every table!
Issued by the Information Department
info@zimrights.org.zw
www.zimrights.org.zw
