Biti meets war vets

and undertook to pay school fees arrears that Government owes them.
The war veterans first tried to meet him on Monday and then on Wednesday without success.
They wanted him to clarify statements attributed to him in the private media that he was ready to “go to war” as he insisted Treasury had no money to improve civil servants salaries using dividends from sales of diamonds from Chiadzwa.
The Mines and Mining Development Ministry and other stakeholders revealed documents showing Treasury has been given the money but Minister Biti has refused to alleviate Government workers’ lot.
Yesterday war veterans expressed satisfaction with Minister Biti’s commitment to pay outstanding arrears for their children’s school fees within two days.
They said the Finance Minister also promised to pay next term school fees within seven days of opening. However, they said Minister Biti did not make any commitment to improve civil servants salaries.
They said the minister had also not undertaken to pay their healthcare dues and to raise their monthly pensions from US$116 to at least US$200. The war veterans are also furious that Minister Biti – who was exposed as a key figure in structuring illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe – had done nothing to call for the end to the widely-discredited embargo as required of him and his MDC-T party in the Global Political Agreement. – Herald/ZBCNews.