Prosecutors mull calling off strike

them for being insincere about their salaries.
The State lawyers had underestimated their salaries in a bid to gain public sympathy.

They also falsely claimed that there was a huge discrepancy between their salaries and those of magistrates, with whom they trained.
The prosecutors said that they earned between US$253 and US$400 per month but PSC chairman Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwah said their total monthly package ranged between US$555 and US$727. A meeting the prosecutors held with acting secretary for Justice and Legal Affairs Mr Maxwell Ranga yesterday revealed that the discrepancies they claimed between their salaries and those of magistrates were “very minor”.

Some of the prosecutors interviewed said the meeting was an eye opener and made them realise they had gone on strike on an uninformed position.
“We can not continue striking over a US$60 difference,” a prosecutor, who refused to be named, said.
“We have decided to give them time to adjust the discrepancies, while we go back to work on Monday.”

Zimbabwe Law Officers Association (ZILOA) secretary general Mr Dereck Charamba said they were now going back to the drawing board to consult members following the revelations.
“We are still consulting with our members, we do not have a decision yet. We will announce our official position on Friday,'” he said.
Mr Charamba said Mr Ranga had agreed to look into the salary discrepancies. He said that although the PSC was “trying to belittle the discrepancies” they still mattered to them because they would be backdated to July this year.

Mr Charamba said only ZILOA members had the prerogative to decide their next move, adding that the Government was pleading with them to go back to work. But Mr Ranga said that the prosecutors had agreed in principle to go back to work while the salary discrepancies were being sorted.

Speaking after meeting the prosecutors, Mr Ranga said they admitted that they had been fed with wrong information regarding salaries of magistrates.
“We invited them so that we could discuss issues regarding their salaries,” he said.

“We told them that issues raised by Public Service Commission chairman Dr Nzuwah were correct.
“The discrepancies of their salaries and that of magistrates ranges from US$53 to US$67 and the US$200 to US$700 they were purporting is not the correct position.'”

Mr Ranga said the other discrepancy was a result of the representation allowance of US$156, which principal law officers were not getting.
“We asked the prosecutors if they wanted to continue with the strike because of US$60?” he said.

“We told them to go back to work while we address their concerns. People out there were given the wrong information regarding magistrates and prosecutors salaries. The PSC chairman checked both salaries and found out that the discrepancies were not as high as they claimed.”

Prosecutors have been on strike since last Tuesday over salary discrepancies between them and magistrates.
The strike has affected the justice delivery system with a backlog of cases reported at both the High Court and the magistrates’ court.

Prosecutors from the security forces working at the courts did not join the strike, but they were being overwhelmed.