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Government is in the process of mopping up payment of its workers and yesterday teachers were paid their dues for the month of June while today health workers are expected to get theirs.
Payment of civil servants salaries has been staggered as Government is struggling with acute shortage of cash that is prevailing in the economy due to a combination of factors that include low productivity and exports, illicit financial outflows and importation of mainly non-essential products.
The shortage of cash has affected a lot of business and individual transactions which has had a deleterious effect on the economy, with the past few months showing an increasingly worrying trend.
Efforts, though, are underway to reverse the trend and the introduction of import control through the recent gazetting of a statutory instrument removing certain goods from the general import licence and the introduction of export incentives and bond notes are the measures being adopted in the short term.
It is our view that Government must leave no stone unturned in its efforts to not only improve the general economic conditions, but also pay its workers unfailingly on time and not being found wanting. This week saw a strike by civil servants over the delay in the processing of their June salaries.
While such a collective job action is nothing new, this action was instructive in at least two ways.
First, it tells us that Government, as we suggest above, must spare no effort in finding resources so that it is able to pay its workers on time and within traditional time frames which a range of goods and services should be paid for.
If there are any delays, civil servants not only get chocked by penalties — say on loans they would have taken — but it actually disturbs the whole economic chain that depends on the money and business of this critical sector.
The second telling factor about the job action was that any pitfall in the delivery by Government is likely to be exploited by some elements with ulterior motives.
We all witnessed how all sorts of characters tried to appropriate the cause of the workers who had opted to stay at home to protest their employers’ inability to pay them on time.
Suddenly, some political forces made the world believe that they had instigated and were driving the stay away, all conveniently forgetting that civil service labour unions had actually given notice of the action a week ago!
Those with political interests came to the party to lay claim of the cause and worse was to come from vigilantes that were bent on causing despondency, violence and anarchy.
The civil service strike provided the perfect cover. Some ugly scenes were witnessed in places such as Harare’s Mufakose and Warren Park suburbs and Makokoba in Bulawayo.
Previously, a kombi crew strike in some routes of eastern Harare had been hijacked by hoodlums that had sought to torch off anarchy and violence.
Now, if a window of opportunity were to present itself through an industrial action by civil servants, again, these things could repeat themselves or turn uglier all over again.
Nobody wants that.
Zimbabwe’s detractors are waiting by the gates to exploit any volatility in our systems and body to achieve their nefarious ends.
They should not be granted that pleasure.
Hence, we urge Government to work extra hard not only to pay the civil service, but to also grow the national economic cake for the enjoyment of its citizenry.
Measures must also be taken to continuously reduce the size of the Government workforce, cutting general expenditure and containing recurrent expenses so that Government does not remain bogged down by unnecessary costs.
Online Reporter