Rest of civil servants’ bonuses to be paid Friday

Mashudu Netsianda Senior Reporter
THE government has announced that it will pay the last batch of bonuses next Friday as it fulfills promises President Mugabe made to civil servants. The bonuses were supposed to be paid yesterday, but Treasury indicated that it wanted some time to mobilise resources.

The first group comprising members of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and Airforce of Zimbabwe received their 13th cheques in February while the police and members of the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services received their payments in April.

Workers under the education sector, which has the highest number of employees in government, were subsequently paid in May.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa, in a statement yesterday, said the decision to move the date was to allow for the mobilisation of the requisite resources.

Those yet to be paid include those employed in the higher education sector.

“As previously communicated, the government is paying the 2015 bonus payments on a staggered basis. The last instalment which relates to the rest of the civil servants is being moved from June 3, 2016, to June 10, 2016 to allow for mobilisation of the requisite resources and Treasury sincerely regrets all the inconveniences cause,” Minister Chinamasa said.

Due to tight fiscal space, the government had early last year contemplated suspending payment of bonuses for 2015 and 2016 to create space for funding Zim-Asset.

The move irked civil servants and President Mugabe overturned the suspension saying “when the government bestows a benefit on civil servants, that benefit can’t be withdrawn because it has become a right.”

The delays in the payment of the 2015 bonuses saw some civil servants threatening to go on strike.

At least 83 percent of government revenue is gobbled by salaries, a development that stifles economic growth.

The government has come up with a number of strategies to reduce the wage bill and is rationalising the civil service following an audit carried out last year by the Civil Service Commission.