Zim diplomats unpaid for 20 months: MDC-T

via Zim diplomats unpaid for 20 months: MDC-T 17/12/2014

THE MDC-T says it has discovered that Zimbabwe’s diplomats have not been paid for 20 months and the foreign missions face ejection from the properties they occupy over non-payment of rentals.

In a statement MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the development was an “embarrassment” for the country and comes at a time when the government is failing to honour its promises to the people.

Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe had also “failed to pay annual subscriptions to the African Union as well as our SADC mandatory pledges, even though President Mugabe is at the helm of both institutions.”

The former Prime Minister added: “Our current sad reality is worlds apart from the make-believe world depicted in ZimAsset, a Zanu PF policy programme that has failed to assume any life outside the neatly packed blueprints in government offices.”

Early this year it emerged that Zimbabwe’s embassies were struggling with a debt of $13 million. Reports said so poor were the foreign missions that some were relying on “high maintenance vehicles.”

In 2009 it was reported that a senior diplomat based in Mozambique was walking to work because there was no money to purchase a vehicle for him.

For most of this year government departments have been failing to service their debts while the treasury has been struggling to pay the civil servants on time. This week finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said he may have to cull the civil service which he said stands at over half a million.