Civil servants offered salaries below poverty datum line

By Lance Guma
09 January 2007

With several strikes having rocked Zimbabwe already, the Public Service Commission has made moves to appease restless civil servants by offering a total 1050 percent salary increments broken down roughly into 300 percent increments every 4 months. Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa however reports that these increments will do little to appease disgruntled civil servants some of whom are already deserting the service. If implemented the new structures will mean a net salary of Z$210 000 per month including housing and transport allowances. This remains below the poverty datum line now over Z$245 000.

To demonstrate the disaffection amongst members of the civil service Muchemwa reports that 9 immigration officials transferred from Harare to Beitbridge on a two week ‘operation’ have since jumped the border themselves into neighbouring South Africa. Senior immigration officials are said to have been left dumbfounded when they sent transportation to move their officials back to Harare only to be told they were no longer at their posts. According to Muchemwa another example of the crisis is that out of an initial 58 laboratory technicians at Harare Hospital only 3 remain. The rest have left for greener pastures.

Several teachers interviewed by our correspondent said they would wait to see how the increments announced will be implemented. There is consensus however that if implemented in a staggered fashion, any increases will be wiped out by inflation. Already junior doctors and workers from the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) have gone on strike demanding better salaries and working conditions. Any strike by the civil service could have damaging consequences for the country’s economy.