Govt to house civil servants

Pardon Gotora Features Writer
The sweet news that civil servants would be keen to hear is that they have been awarded a salary increment.
It would be even more fabulous if they are promised that the employer will find them decent and affordable housing as a non-monetary condition of service.

The front page of The Herald of Tuesday January 21 2014 carried a story titled “Govt, civil servants sign salary deal”. In that story Mr Richard Gundane, the Apex Council team leader and Zimbabwe Teachers Association president, was quoted as having said that engagements on non-monetary benefits, chief among them housing, had started.

“We have agreed that Government should start implementing the provision of land for housing purposes,” he was quoted as having said.

My conjecture from the proclamation by Mr Gundane was that the Government was contemplating introducing civil service housing schemes going forward and they have since put pen to paper on this pact, if I read the story properly.

Indeed, this will be great news to filter through the ears of every civil servant who has been hard-pressed by the sanctions-induced economic challenges and elbowed out of the housing market due to “low incomes”.

As if that was not enough, the majority of unscrupulous land barons have taken aim at the same “low-income earning civil servants” to fleece them of the little they have in their pockets through dodgy land deals.

The bulk of them aim at the civil servants because of their stable and guaranteed incomes and they are quick to entice you to sign the stop order forms so that the “favourable instalments” would be deducted at source as a risk mitigatory strategy.

Thus the land barons will be guaranteed of stable income from the Salary Service Bureau or any other Government paying agent, yet there will be no stands to show for religiously paying to the “developer or trust”.

It is interesting how such housing development “trusts” have blossomed in the US dollar era and how gorgeous their names and corporate colours are.

One will be tempted to join because of the marketing skills that the staff members possess. Ironically, even those within the housing fraternity could be convinced to join them if they are not careful.

Government, just like any other employer worldwide, is obliged to provide housing for its employees. The Government of Zimbabwe has never reneged on this obligation and since 1980 there has been a lot of housing schemes for civil servants.

Even His Excellency, Cde Mugabe has repeatedly talked about housing provision, not only for civil servants, but all the citizens at large.

The issue at hand is about the quantum of houses required for the civil servants. How many houses are required to accommodate all the civil servants in Zimbabwe, including those that are on foreign missions? One day those in foreign assignments would return home and they need accommodation.

The same Herald newspaper reports that the total number of civil servants is “over 230 000”, which is an estimate I guess, and I am 100 percent confident the Civil Service Commission has the accurate information on the total number of civil servants. Of the over 230 000, how many are in dire need of accommodation?

Though I might not have the figures to substantiate my claim as yet, of the over 230 000 civil servants, there are some who already have houses or stands of their own, whether they bought through Government, local authorities, housing cooperatives, the private sector or they acquired them through inheritance.

At least they have something they call a home. Then on the other hand, there are some who are in the worst scenario, where they have neither a house nor a stand and depend on lodging and renting.

There are some who are staying in Government-rented accommodation, but would wish to own their own one day, some live in police and army camps or in school houses in the case of rural teachers.

Of course, not to cause any damage to the programmes in the pipeline and not to pre-empty what was proposed in the treaty, how will the selection of the needy be done? Who will be spearheading the selection to avoid double-dipping? I have heard that the workers’ representatives would love to be involved in such programmes, maybe to “gain mileage” or they “have workers at heart”, they know better.

But the point is whoever will take charge of selection of beneficiaries for allocation of stands, they have to allocate basing on need and not greed. Put simply, there has to be an intensive vetting procedure to accommodate all deserving civil servants. I say deserving because there are those who have already benefited from the same Government and for me they do not deserve any space in the forthcoming similar projects. But who will guard against that?

That brings me to the next point, for the negotiators, how are you defining housing?

From an outsider’s perspective, once you mention housing, what comes to the mind is urban housing, yet there is also rural housing.

We have a class of civil servants who are contented in staying put in rural areas because it makes political and socio-economic sense for them to stay there.

How are the negotiators going to take care of this situation?

Some are farmers, whether communal, A1 or A2, so they need to spend all their time and efforts in the rural or resettlement areas while performing Government chores, how will they be accommodated in these deals that will be negotiated with Government.

I have read about a 5 percent of basic salary as rural allowance, how about rural housing? I have mentioned in one of my previous articles that for the rural areas, it is more about the quality of housing than homelessness.

Therefore, my plea to the negotiators is that when discussing on allocation of stands for housing, consider the plight of those in rural areas, in the same manner you have been touched by the plight of a teacher who is lodging at her/his pupil’s house in Mbare or Chitungwiza. I sincerely hope that there shall not be bias towards urban housing.

To wrap up my argument, who is going to take care of Government pensioners? Whenever there is a salary increment, their monthly dues also increase, how about housing?