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Outrage
over maternity tax-relief snub
Foster Dongozi,
The Standard (Zimbabwe)
November
05, 2006
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=11&id=5191&siteid=1
WOMEN’S organisations
have expressed outrage over the refusal by the government to award
pregnant women untaxed salaries for the three months they are on
maternity leave.
Women members
in the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions had proposed at a maternity workshop
in July that pregnant women should not be taxed while on maternity
leave as they needed as much money as they could to prepare for
the birth of their babies.
But the government,
through the Ministry of Finance, rebuffed their request, saying
granting such women tax-free maternity benefits could cause "distortions"
in the economy.
A memo signed
by a government official says in part: "In order to reduce distortions
within the economy, as well as reduce the administrative burden
of tax collection on the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, government
has taken a deliberate stance to reduce the schedule of tax exemptions."
Lucia Matibenga,
the ZCTU first vice-president, said she was "outraged" by the response
from the government.
"We believe
in engaging the government through dialogue and if that does not
work, then we have several options, like lobbying and others. When
a woman is on maternity leave, she will be contributing immensely
to the country and for our government to punish women on maternity
by not awarding them cash benefits is absolutely diabolical. We
stick by our slogan that every woman is a working woman and we will
consult our partners in the informal sector and civic society on
the way forward."
Matibenga is
also the president of the regional Southern African Trade Union
Co-ordinating Council, the umbrella body for all labour federations
in Southern Africa.
The deputy chairperson
of Women’s Coalition,
which groups all women’s organisations in Zimbabwe, Regina Dumba,
said: "It is sad and unfortunate that the government does not consider
the plight of women. Pregnant women need a better diet and drugs
for themselves and their babies and that is when we need more money.
We wonder where we are going as a nation if we don’t realise that
women will be on national service during pregnancy and yet the government
sees it as something else."
Dumba said the
Women’s Coalition would write a letter to the Ministry of Finance,
demanding a meeting with senior government officials.
"If dialogue
does not achieve anything, then we will see what we can do."
The coalition
recently staged a demonstration outside Parliament to protest against
sexist remarks made by MP Timothy Mubhawu (MDC).
Stella Moyo,
a Harare woman, said she was surprised that the Ministry of Gender
and Women’s Affairs had not reacted to the snub. She also wondered
why Vice-President Joice Mujuru had not used her position to ensure
women got the tax relief.
"The refusal
to grant pregnant women cash benefits is the clearest sign that
the ministry is a toothless bulldog," Moyo said."I think the ministry
should be disbanded, instead of being used as window-dressing to
mislead women into thinking that their welfare is important in the
eyes of the government."
Women’s Affairs
minister, Oppah Muchinguri, appeared blissfully unaware of the storm
affecting her constituency.
"I am not aware
of the issue that you are talking about, so I cannot comment. I
will first have to do my homework before I respond. Thank you for
alerting me to that."
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