Herald
23 May 2009
CIVIL servants in Harare took to the streets yesterday, demanding to be paid “real salaries”, warning Government they would embark on industrial action if their grievances are not addressed promptly.
Riot police had to be deployed to stop the placard-waving disgruntled workers from marching to the offices of the ministries of Public Service and Social Welfare.
The civil servants had gathered at the Public Service Association headquarters in the morning and were en route to the offices of Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Paurina Mpariwa and Minister of Public Service Eliphas Mukonoweshuro to air their grievances when police stopped them.
Both ministers are MDC-T secondments to Cabinet.
Read some of the placards: “We are working for salaries and not allowances”, “US$100 is not enough” and “Bills are more than our allowances”.
Riot police advised them to open dialogue with the relevant ministries, after which one officer accompanied the PSA leadership to Minister Mukonoweshuro’s office.
However, they did not have the meeting they desired as the minister was said to be out of office.
In an interview later, PSA executive secretary Mr Emmanuel Tichareva said civil servants were not satisfied with the allowances they were getting.
“We would like to meet the minister as soon as possible because what is happening on the ground is not conducive. Civil servants are agitated and will down tools if they do not see anything meaningful coming next week. We are going to take action,” he said.
The disgruntled civil servants feel that they are being sidelined in negotiation processes.
“Education Minister Senator David Coltart has been talking to teachers and promising them packages. Nurses have been promised packages. We also want to meet our minister and have dialogue,” Mr Tichareva said.
The association said it would consult its members after yesterday’s demonstration flopped.
The PSA issued Government with a 14-day ultimatum, which expires on June 8, to address its members’ grievances. Efforts to get a comment from Ministers Mpariwa and Mukonoweshuro were fruitless yesterday.
Affiliate members of the PSA who wanted to demonstrate yesterday comprised the Government Workers’ Association, Civil Service Employees’ Association, Professional and Technical Officers’ Association, Government Officers’ Association, and Administrative and Executive Officers’ Association.
Civil servants who spoke to The Herald expressed displeasure at the slow pace which the inclusive Government was addressing their working conditions.
“We have been getting these allowances for too many months now. All we keep getting are promises from the inclusive Government that they are addressing our plight, but we are not seeing the progress,” one of the workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, said.
Another said: “The allowances we are getting are not even from the inclusive Government. That means the inclusive Government has not yet done anything to address our working conditions even though it was formed way back in February.”
The US$100 that is being paid to civil servants was awarded by then Acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa before the formation of the inclusive Government comprising Zanu-PF, MDC-T and the MDC.
Since then, a number of Government officials, including Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Finance Minister Tendai Biti, have implored workers to be patient with them as they work to improve working conditions.