Recently, President Robert Mugabe said the government would be banking on its natural resources to raise the $200 million required. Currently, the lowest earning civil servant in Zimbabwe earns $296 a month. The Poverty Datum Line is pegged at $600 a month.
The government recently announced a 5,3 percent inflation related salary increment for civil servants, which the latter said was nothing to write home about.
To make matters worse, there has been no meaningful engagement between the government and civil servants for the past 12 months due to the lack of a representative body recognised by unions and the government.
The Apex Council, a body that brings together all civil servants unions in salary negotiations with the government has been rocked by leadership wrangles following elections held in August.
There are allegations among teacher unions loyal to the current Apex Council leadership that the PSA is running a parallel structure by approaching the government as a separate entity over salary negotiations.
Apex Council Chairperson, David Dzatsunga told The Zimbabwean in an interview that in as much as civil servants were pushing for better salaries, there was no end in sight to their problems.
“The issue of civil servants salaries is the least of the government’s priorities. The government is struggling to raise money for the referendum, elections and the UNWTO General Assembly.
He predicted that civil servants might have to wait until after the forthcoming elections for a review of their salaries.
The President of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Takavafira Zhou, admitted that fighting for an upward review of civil servants’ salaries would be an uphill task.
“I believe that 2013 is the best year to fight for our salaries because it is only before an election that you can push the government to increase civil servants’ salaries because they need our votes,” he said.
Economic analyst, John Robertson, said the government was largely incapacitated to increase civil servants’ salaries.
“The civil servants’ salaries can only rise if tax revenues increase. Already, the civil servants are being paid a bigger percentage of the total tax revenues than any other country in Southern Africa. Also, we have a huge number of civil servants and this has created a huge wage bill,” said Robertson.
Post published in: News