Women and working-class communities are bearing the brunt of Zimbabwe’s tax burden and austerity measures while receiving inadequate public services in return, social and economic justice activist Yollander Millin has said.
Millin, from Social and Economic Justice Activism (SEJA), a youth leadership programme run by the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), said debates on tax and debt justice should go beyond economic figures and examine how government policies affect ordinary people.
She said women, who are disproportionately represented in the informal economy, were particularly affected.
Millin was speaking during the Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba hosted by ZIMCODD in partnership with ZCC and the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELO).
On this topic • Traditional dance teachers trained ahead of Jikinya festival • ZIMRA flags mining revenue leakages, tax challenges in small-scale sector • Bulawayo council wants Geo Pomona MOU before considering deal
She was part of a panel discussion on the debt crisis, disproportionate tax burden and mining revenues, under the topic: “Securing a fair, gender-just share of mineral wealth for development.”
“When we are talking about social and economic justice, we are talking about debt justice, we are talking about tax justice. And always the question is for whom? Justice for whom?” Millin said.
She said ordinary citizens might not understand technical economic indicators used to describe the country’s debt and economic performance, but could feel their impact through rising prices and declining purchasing power.
“My mother does not understand when we are talking about tax, when we are talking about austerity, but she understands to say that the $10 note that she had last month does not serve as well as it did before. That means the cost of living is going up,” she said.
Millin said improvements in economic statistics did not necessarily translate into better living conditions.
“The figures of debt may have gone down on paper, but in the shop the price is going up, which means that uh they are being affected,” she said.
She said the impact of taxation was not limited to women in mining communities, but affected women in both urban and rural areas.
“I do not differentiate as so much to say these are women in mines, these are women in the city, because they are affected by taxes, they are affected by debt, all the same,” Millin said.
She said Zimbabweans were paying multiple taxes while government budgets were not translating into adequate public services.
“We are paying a lot of taxes. We have a lot of taxes, but we find that our budgets are not going to further the repayment of debt, instead of them giving us gender-responsive public services,” she said.
Millin said gender-responsive public services should address the needs of women, men, boys and girls.
She said women working in the informal economy faced an additional burden because of what she described as multiple forms of taxation, while also struggling to access essential services.
“women are mostly informal. That means they’ve got the burden also of double taxation, over-taxation, but at the end of it we are saying that they have to go long distances as some of us are saying to get to the hospital,” she said.
Millin urged policymakers to consider the human cost of economic policies as Parliament prepares to consider the 2027 national budget.
She called on MPs to prioritise spending that protects livelihoods and improves access to public services rather than focusing narrowly on debt repayment.
“As we are not at our budgets, the 2027 budget, let us have the lens of saying, let us preserve the most natural resource, the most precious natural resource that we have, which is the human labor,” Millin said.
“Because without people, that means we are not going to have the taxes, we’re not going to be able to do this and that. But if we can protect the livelihoods of the people, especially the working class, to ensure that they can have meaningful lives where they are living, then we can generate more and then we can have productivity.”
Millin also criticised the continued impact of austerity measures, saying Zimbabweans were experiencing economic hardship without seeing the prosperity that had been promised when austerity was introduced.
“I remember when the austerity measures were being introduced, they talked about austerity for prosperity. But what is right now is prosperity without.There is austerity without prosperity. There is austerity with so much pain,” she said.
She said the economic crisis was also affecting people’s mental wellbeing, particularly those whose livelihoods had been disrupted.
Millin said informal traders who depended on vending to support their families were increasingly struggling as their sources of income came under pressure.
“It also comes with an a mental and wellness that is there. You also find that suicide ideation is on the rise. You find that gender-based violence is on the rise,” she said.
She called on the government to consider mental health and social wellbeing as part of the broader social justice agenda, arguing that economic policies have consequences beyond household incomes.
“But if the government pays attention to that, even up to the last detail of saying, what is the mental mindset of these mothers? That also is a social uh justice issue,” Millin said.
Her remarks come amid calls from civil society organisations for greater scrutiny of Zimbabwe’s debt, taxation and public expenditure, particularly whether government revenue is translating into meaningful public services for citizens.
Source: Tax burden deepens hardship for women, working class — CITEZW
The post Tax burden deepens hardship for women, working class appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.