According to reports from cabinet sources, predominately MDC-T ministers and one Zanu (PF) minister put up a fight for the allowances. The huge demand comes at a time the government is offering civil servants a paltry five percent annual salary increment.
“At the last cabinet meeting held on 18 December, MDC ministers put up a huge fight for a $21, 000 housing allowance per cabinet member. Finance minister Tendai Biti said the allowance would be difficult to justify given that government was not going to increase civil servants’ salaries,” claimed the source.
Efforts by The Zimbabwean to get clarification on the ministers’ demands were not fruitful as ministers from both Zanu (PF) and MDC either refused to comment or claimed they never attended a cabinet meeting which deliberated such an issue.
Minister of Public Service, Lucia Matibenga, and the minister of Industry and Commerce, Professor Welshman Ncube, refused to comment as they said they had no authority to talk to the media about cabinet deliberations.
Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Eric Matinenga and the minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Savior Kasukuwere, professed ignorance about a cabinet meeting that discussed such an issue.
Several other cabinet ministers from across the political divide said they were hearing the housing allowance ‘allegation’ for the first time.
Post published in: News