The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Social Contract faces a crisis of public acceptance if the central bank fails to undertake an active public awareness campaign.
What the general populace perceive of the social contract is the escalation of prices, the run away inflation now hovering above 2200%, stagnant salaries accompanied by an ever deteriorating standard of living. At the present moment, according to the Central Statistics Office figures, the Poverty Datum Line has skipped to $1,7 million for a family of five.
As the central bank mooted the idea of the social contract, firms have been on the offensive as they tried to preemptively run away from frozen prices before the March deadline. However, as the date came and went, nothing has happened except the ever riding up of prices much to the detriment of those unfortunate to be price takers.
Manufacturers have raised prices without raising wages for their employees. The government has not intervened, neither has the RBZ. This has created distrust between the parties to the social contract idea.
Initially, the social contract idea was not well marketed to the various publics with some of the participants having the suspicion that they might be the loser in the program. This has not helped the worker whose representation is sharply divided along political faultlines.
When the RBZ Governor visited the Midlands State University, quite a number of students interviewed before and after his address either did not know or had a vague understanding of the social contract idea. If university students fail to understand this then a different story will have to be told for the odinary man on the street - another case of the media shortchanging the Zimbabwean audience.
What the general populace perceive of the social contract is the escalation of prices, the run away inflation now hovering above 2200%, stagnant salaries accompanied by an ever deteriorating standard of living. At the present moment, according to the Central Statistics Office figures, the Poverty Datum Line has skipped to $1,7 million for a family of five.
As the central bank mooted the idea of the social contract, firms have been on the offensive as they tried to preemptively run away from frozen prices before the March deadline. However, as the date came and went, nothing has happened except the ever riding up of prices much to the detriment of those unfortunate to be price takers.
Manufacturers have raised prices without raising wages for their employees. The government has not intervened, neither has the RBZ. This has created distrust between the parties to the social contract idea.
Initially, the social contract idea was not well marketed to the various publics with some of the participants having the suspicion that they might be the loser in the program. This has not helped the worker whose representation is sharply divided along political faultlines.
When the RBZ Governor visited the Midlands State University, quite a number of students interviewed before and after his address either did not know or had a vague understanding of the social contract idea. If university students fail to understand this then a different story will have to be told for the odinary man on the street - another case of the media shortchanging the Zimbabwean audience.
The majority of the Zimbabweans understand the Social Contract as an economic blueprint that has nothing to do with the ‘social’ that it claims to be. Now the tallest question is ‘how social is the contract?’ This question hovers in the minds of all affected Zimbabweans since the hardest hit part of their lives is the economic side.
However, this social contract has to be made up of various social partners that have the mandate to sit down and negotiate the way forward. The main partners are Government, Business and Labour. To act on the sidelines as advisors should be the church, the academia, the civic groups, political parties and the international community. The media sould obviously play a catalytic role by providing the public space for open debate on the issues.
It is the duty of every negotiating partner to negotiate in good faith, act responsibly, shun selfishness, put Zimbabwe first and have confidence with the other stakeholders, urged Dr Gono addressing the students. But these basic requirements will remain lacking in the absents of information.
What have we? Business is hiking prices and suppressing wages, labor is calling for higher wages, unity among workers is fragmented, civil servants salaries are pityable, political intolerance is rife and cooperation between government and civil society is frictional. Opposition parties and the ruling party do not see eye to eye. The church itself no longer speaks with one voice, in fact men and women of the cloth speak in many tounges. The academia seems to have a hazy understanding of the issues at hand.
It remains a tall order for the central bank to consolidate its efforts to bring the intended result. Since March, prices have been on the loose, political competition has been bloody, industrial action has been the order of industry following suppressed wages. Consumer rights groups have been and still are taking an infinite nap while communication of the idea has not been fully executed. Nowhere near Zimbabwe has a social contract been employed to heal the ills suffered by a people.
The central bank has to go back to the drawing board and come up with a more vigorous percetion management strategy to drill people into supporting this otherwise noble idea. With the current (mis)understanding of the idea, the general public's perception is that a social contract is a catalyst of inflation and a declining standard of living.
By Precious Chibhira Bsc Hons Media and Society Studies, Level 2.2 MSU
By Precious Chibhira Bsc Hons Media and Society Studies, Level 2.2 MSU
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