No civil servants salary review

THE Minister of Public Service, Lucia Matibenga, has poured cold water on any hopes for improved salaries for civil servants in the near future, saying Treasury's coffers were empty.

Minister Matibenga said the only way out was for her Ministry and that of Mines and Mining Development to lobby the Government to establish a civil servants' mining concern.

Addressing an MDC-T rally in Ascot suburb, Gweru, at the weekend, Minister Matibenga said there was no room for civil servants' salaries increase any time soon.

"There has been much talk on civil servants' salary review and as the responsible Minister, I have been running around to find out how we can meet the civil servants' demands. I recently met the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, and he reiterated to me that Treasury has no money to improve the civil service salaries. He told me that the civil service bill was already gobbling more than 60 percent of the budget," she said.

Minister Matibenga, said she was still engaging the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development with the purpose of approaching the principals to the inclusive Government to consider establishing a mining concern that would cater for civil servants.

"After exhausting all the avenues as to how we can improve the civil service salaries, as the responsible Ministry, we then suggested that the only way Government could deal with this matter is to establish a mining concern, meant to specifically cater for the civil servants.

We are still engaging the Ministry of Mines in that regard before we approach the principals in the inclusive Government to make use of the vast mineral deposits we have as a country and establish a mining concern for the civil service," she said.

Minister Matibenga said the mining concern could be of any mineral that is found in large quantities in the country.

"The mine could be gold, platinum or any mineral mining company. We would, however, love to have a civil service diamond mine because we understand there are plenty of diamonds in the Marange area in Manicaland Province," she said.

Minister Matibenga said the civil servants should appreciate Government's efforts in trying to improve their welfare.

"We have heard civil servants saying Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has failed us, the inclusive Government has failed but the civil servants ought to appreciate the efforts that has been made by the Government in trying to improve their conditions of service," she said.

"When the country was facing serious inflation, Government introduced the voucher system to cushion the civil servants. A $100 allowance was also introduced soon after the scrapping of the Zimbabwe dollar. The civil servants salaries were then set at $150 and later to $196 for the lowest paid. Now the lowest paid is getting $256 in the civil service and people continue to say Government has failed them?"

At that point the crowd jeered her.

Some people in the crowd could be overheard attacking the Minister for failing to deal with the issue of ghost workers.

Minister Matibenga's remarks seem to be contradicting with the civil servants' unions, which are pushing hard for a salary review for the civil servants.

The civil servants are demanding to be paid salaries above the poverty datum line, which is about $504 for the lowest paid.