via Anger at Govt pay date postponement – DailyNews Live 15 MAY 2014
Yesterday civil servants woke up to learn that Treasury had decided to change their May pay dates again, the third such change in a row.
Pay day for the Education sector was deferred by a day from May 15 to 16 with the rest of the civil service to be paid on May 29 instead of May 22. Pensioners’ pay date was pushed from May 28 to 30.
The Daily News crew of Jeffrey Muvundusi and Letwin Nyambayo took to the Bulawayo streets to hear what people had to say about this.
Priscilla Sithole, 45
“Government should learn to prioritise its workforce. The government is being unfair regarding the way it continues to play around with the pay dates. It is a sign of a big problem.
“Zanu PF has virtually failed and I think they should take responsibility for their action. I regard this as total failure and I can imagine where we are headed for. What remains is for them to tell us that there is no money at all.
“My husband is a civil servant, therefore what is happening is bad and we demand to know the truth.”
McStanley Mpofu, 29
“Since the elections, we have seen a gradual deterioration of the economic situation. As such, what is happening in the Public Service Commission is just a confirmation that we are on a downward spiral.
“It’s clear that minister Patrick Chinamasa and his team are failing to raise enough money for their workers. Where are the diamonds they used to talk about during the inclusive government?
Now they are quiet about the subject.
“A country is judged by how it treats its civil servants and in this case they have failed.”
Simbarashe Zinyengetere, 23
“The moving of pay dates is an indication that there is no money in the country. People should understand the economy and civil servants should be patient.”
Kevin Mlauzi, 40
“That is a serious inconvenience because what it means is that if you postpone a salary by a week, that person has gone for more than a month without getting his or her pay. What do you call that other than failure?”
Mikel Zvireva, 37
“The situation is just a passing phase as it is not new. We cannot say there is a major problem that people can go to town and ring alarm bells about, No. This is a common problem which has happened several times in the past. In any case, this is common in any country, especially developing ones like Zimbabwe.
“Besides, people should understand the dynamics of economics. What worsens this situation we are in is that we are not using our own currency in managing the economy.
“We should have our own currency, Mozambique and Zambia never threw away their kwacha when things wentbad.”
Sylvester Maramba, 35
“We had an inclusive government recently and decisions were contested. Building a shattered economy takes time so we cannot be quick to say Zanu PF has failed because as it is, it indicates that government is working on building the economy back to its feet.
“I can assure you that in the not so distant future, things will have normalised and all these problems will be a thing of the past.”
Timothy Shoko, 31
“A postponement by a week is nothing to make noise about. There is probably a solid reason why the government has moved the dates.
The days have just been moved by a week and a day in some so what problem are you talking about?
We are not jumping into another month without the pay as people want us to believe.
The problem will only come if they do not pay them totally.”
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