Zimbabwe: Civil Servants Ratchet Up Pressure on Govt

Financial Gazette (Harare)

Karren Shava

20 May 2011

ZIMBABWE’S restive civil servants have requested an urgent update from the inclusive government over a promised salary hike as rage escalated within the public sector over poor remuneration and working conditions.

Last month, civil servants representatives under the Civil Service Apex Council, met President Robert Mugabe in desperate attempts to pull out a salary increment.

President Mugabe assu-red them that they would get a favourable salary review in June.

The deafening silence from government corridors has now forced Tendai Chikowore, who chairs the Apex Council, to write to Nelson Sambureni, the chairperson of the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) seeking an update on the promised salary review.

NJNC comprises of negotiators from government and civil servants, who are represented by several public service unions, among them the influential Zimbabwe Teachers Association and the Public Service Association.

In a letter dated May 11, 2011, Chikowore said displeasure in the public service was “swelling”, adding that there were high expectations for a positive response on the part of the government.

“This letter is a follow-up inquiry on the above subject (request for an update on the salary review for public service workers).We are following up the matter on the bedrock of our cordial and promising meeting with His Excellency, the State President, R.G. Mug-abe last month,” reads part of the letter.

“It is our belief that by now government wheels should be grinding towards June salary review and we are convinced that the mid-term fiscal policy review will not ignore this important and grave matter of concern to the public service workers. The atmosphere in the public service is swelling with high expectations for a positive response on the part of government.”

“It is in light of these expectations that we table a request for feedback on the prog-ress regarding this matter. We look forward to a spe-edy response on your part,” said Chikowore.

The lowest paid civil servant takes home an average of US$150 in a country were the poverty datum line is estimated at US$500.

Civil servants blame Finance Minister, Tendai Biti for the government’s failure to award them a salary hike premised on revenue earned from the sale of the Marange diamonds.

Biti’s critics in government claim that about US$174 million accrued from diamond sales was deposited with treasury, charges vehemently denied by Biti, who has stated that the government’s coffers were empty.

Addressing a Euro mo-ney investment conference in March, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai alleged that about US$300 million worth of diamonds were sold but the money had not been availed to treasury.

The inclusive government is in a quandary over a salary review for public workers after the Inter-national Monetary Fund (IMF) team which recently visited Zimbabwe made recommendations for it to compress its wage bill and rein in the temptation for possible salary hikes.

The IMF said the 2011 National Budget had significant wage bill overruns relative to the budget and warned that the wage bill together with a large stock of outstanding domestic payments arrears accumulated by end 2010 had escalated fiscal pressures.

Previously, the IMF was blamed for measures that triggered a gradual collapse of the economy in the early 1990s through the structural adjustment programme.

Civil servants have warned of a crippling strike if the inclusive government fails to increase their salaries as promised by President Mugabe.

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