All government workers including government ministers like Mukonoweshuro earn a US$100 monthly allowance as donors and international financial institutions refuse to give financial support to Zimbabwes unity government insisting they first want to see evidence President Robert Mugabe is committed to genuinely share power with his former opposition foes.
Civil servants have threatened to go on strike en masse unless the allowances are hiked, a development that could shake the coalition government to the roots.
We are cognisant of the plight of civil servants who remain the governments top priority, said Mukonoweshuro. The government is hamstrung by a lack of resources. But once these resources are available then we will be able to pay them proper salaries, he added.
Scores of civil servants staged protests in Harare last Friday before delivering an ultimatum to the government to increase the allowances or face industrial action next week
Civil servants leaders are also unhappy about what they say is an attempt by the government to divide and weaken their followers by giving preferential treatment including more perks to teachers and health workers leaving out the rest of public workers.
However Mukonoweshuro insisted that although some donors had chipped in with funds for salaries for teachers and nurses these amounted to US$100 for each teacher or nurse the same amount being paid other government workers.
While the unity government has been able to reopen hospitals, schools that had closed down and vowed to get Zimbabwe functioning again, the administrations failure to attract direct and bigger amounts of cash from rich Western countries could see it fail to deliver on its promise and which could trigger its collapse.
Analysts say collapse of the unity government would plunge Zimbabwe into violent anarchy that would have devastating effects across southern Africa.