Since February of this year, average salaries have fallen consistently below the poverty-datum line and the civil servants hopes are pinned on annual bonuses to enable them to survive the festive season. Health workers in hospitals across the country have been getting additional money from donor agencies as incentives to motivate them to continue working in a country where threats of cholera outbreaks and other water-borne diseases haunt citizens.
Teacher representative unions, The Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta), and the Progressive Teachers’ Union (PTUZ) have both said that their members are frustrated. “We have held several meetings with the minister of education and other organisations like UNICEF to try and come up with competitive salaries for teachers, but currently the government is broke and has not accessed any lines of credit from international financiers. However, it is our hope that those teachers who have rejoined the profession will finally get paid for all the months they have gone without pay and that all teachers get their annual bonuses as has been the norm in the previous years. Currently we have not got any word from the ministry about the bonuses,” said Raymond Majongwe, secretary-general of PTUZ.
Salaries are still very low that some workers in the ministry of home affairs have resorted to corrupt measures in order to make money; policemen are swindling motorists at roadblocks and immigration officers charge high prices for passports and emergency travel documents. The provision of annual bonuses will go along way in solving the problems of the restive civil service workforce.
Post published in: Economy