Civil service strike paralyses government operations

Government operations came to a halt on Monday as the country’s civil servants went on strike demanding better wages. According to reports there were only limited services being offered at government hospitals in Harare while the trial of senior MDC official Roy Bennett had to be postponed with court staff also on strike.

At Harare Hospital reports say only senior health workers were attending to patients with junior staff on strike. Teachers, health personnel and other government workers effectively stopped working last Friday after attending a rally at the Harare Gardens at which they resolved to down their tools.

Negotiations broke down last week Tuesday after the civil service unions rejected a 10 percent wage increase effective from April, which had been offered by government. The government says it has no money to foot the bill for the kind of increases being demanded by the unions.

The unions however have countered by saying utility bills coming from government run parastatals are too exorbitant and out of sync with their salaries. Unions say their members need at least US$630 a month to survive and yet their employer is only offering increases that will take them to US$160.

Civil servants will be horrified to learn that members of the Central Intelligence Organisation guarding Mugabe on his overseas trip rake in US$5000 a day in allowances. Reports claim that when Mugabe traveled to Switzerland last year in October a CIO team of 6 men and 1 woman were paid the huge allowances to keep him safe. For 10 days in Switzerland they each accumulated a total of US$50 000 in cash allowances.

A similar trip by Mugabe to Italy saw his security details receive the same amount of money, while less important members from the 60-strong delegation each raked in US$2000 per day. The trip to Italy cost taxpayers a total of US$1,4 million.

A UK Times Online report quoted sources saying large sums of money are still being extracted from the national budget and placed at Mugabe’s disposal. This it said was being done using all sorts of scams to circumvent Finance Minister Tendai Biti who has already called for restraint after announcing that £18m had been spent on foreign travel in 10 months.

Source: SW Radio Africa

Published here: 8 February 2010