“Our top priority is a demand for the gazetting of pay dates. We cannot keep civil servants guessing on when they will be paid, so we want a serious commitment,” said Richard Gundane, chairperson of the Apex Council, in an interview with The Zimbabwean on the side-lines of the national public servants day commemorations held recently.
The Apex Council is the body that brings together all the unions representing civil servants, the largest being the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ).
Since the beginning of this year, civil servants have had their paydays moved as government struggles to put together the required funds. Though top officials in the Zanu (PF) government have refused to admit that it is because the economy is collapsing, President Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba confirmed to journalists in Gweru last month that that the situation is bad.
Speaking on the issue of non-monetary incentives for the public service workers, Gundane said it was imperative that government immediately facilitates housing schemes – rather than talking about luxury holiday tickets. “We want a situation where every civil servant can be offered a residential stand so. It is embarrassing say for a teacher to knock off from work and go back to a house where he rents in the cottage while a student he teaches is a child of the landlord. The non-monetary incentives should be reasonable,” he said.
Post published in: News