News / National
New civil servants' salaries to be unveiled this week
15 Dec 2013 at 03:26hrs | Views
THE 2014 National Budget to be unveiled this week by Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa will see civil servants getting salaries that are above the Poverty Datum Line, President Mugabe said here yesterday.
Officially closing the Zanu-PF 14th National People's Conference, he said the Government could not continue giving its employees slave wages. He also reiterated a commitment to revive industry in Bulawayo and other cities and develop measures to enhance rural livelihoods.
"Minister Chinamasa, you can't say you don't have money," said President Mugabe.
"Where is our platinum going, where is our gold going, our diamonds? No, no, no! If they are taking it, ensure that we tell them that we the owners are taking our money. That is why we say the Budget must tell a new story that those who work must be paid well, paid not below the Poverty Datum Line, but above the Poverty Datum Line, beginning with the level of the Poverty Datum Line. Give us time, there will be improvement; there will be a re-awakening. We should not exploit. We can't be slave masters. We can't allow our people to work for nothing."
The conference at the Chinhoyi University of Technology started last Tuesday and was being held under the theme, "Zim Asset: Growing the Economy for Empowerment and Employment." A total of 4 326 delegates attended the five-day event. The party's sixth congress will be held in Harare next year.
President Mugabe said the Government could not refuse to employ qualified nurses as that negated its efforts to educate them, adding that that complicated efforts to enhance access to health to its citizens.
"We are retiring them too early," he said of nurses.
"We say we have enough nurses? We can't have that luxury and we will look at the systems and what systems can work."
The President said Zimbabweans used to work for whites, but now were their own masters.
He said of industries: "We will now raise them up so life can come to Bulawayo. We said on 31 July we were born again, but are our cities born again? New life should come to Bulawayo, to Gweru, to Harare to Chinhoyi etc and only you can give a new life to our cities as we gave ourselves a new (political) life."
The party had earlier, issued among other resolutions, one that urges the Government to declare Bulawayo a special economic zone focusing on textiles.
He thanked the electorate for voting him and Zanu-PF back into power and declared that the poor performance of 2008 would not happen again.
"Thank you for 31 July and for your confidence in me. I won't let you down. We are together, tiri tose, sisonke. We are united like one person and it's your support which has made those in Britain, in America to fear me," he said to a round of applause.
"As soon as I arrive at a meeting, the likes of (former British Prime Minister, Tony) Blair run away. Do I have a disease that can be transmitted to them? Instead of sitting down to discuss, they don't want to discuss. We talk, discuss and stand on principles. I don't move on what I believe. If you are right, you are right, not anyone to tell you that you are wrong."
He added: "Zanu-PF will never go back to 2008. No, you will fight, fight, fight for Zanu-PF to remain in power. That is a variable but you can make it a constant if you work hard."
He thanked Mashonaland West for playing host to a successful conference and urged other provinces to do likewise.
"We must maintain the standard right to the top and assist others to be the bestest," he said.
"That is Zanu-PF, we did the best. We were down in 2008. We were full of tears. Some people were losing heart. Where are we going? Are we finished? Is this the end of the revolution? No. Let's work and at the end of five years, come July, on the 31st, we shall tell the story of recovery and tell it in a thunderous victory. Zanu forever, victory forever, Zimbabwe forever sovereign."
The President urged delegates to the conference to spread the word on the success of the event when they return to their respective homes today. They should also advise their colleagues back home on the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.
"Go back home knowing that you are more nourished than those who remained behind," he said.
"Tell them about the Chinhoyi story, what you remember having learnt here and the resolutions. They will be translated into Shona and Ndebele. Go back and strengthen the party. Have it better organised structurally. We want organic structures that tell the real story of members who belong. Members who believe in the party, they work for the party, they stand for the party."
He said Zimbabweans were a proud people who did not worship whites.
"God created man. I don't read that he created an Englishman. He created man and gave man a woman. He didn't create an English woman, an American woman. He only created a woman for our grandfather Adam. Let no other man fool you because they are pink and you are dark. No. Some of them are damn fools. We have seen them."
He recalled that at some point, the late South African President Nelson Mandela refused to meet former US President George W Bush, saying that the American did not think.
President Mugabe lauded the Chinese for their ability to develop their own technologies for national development that has seen the Asian country becoming a dominant player in the global economy. The President said Zimbabweans must do likewise, expending their energies on research and developing scientific ways of doing things.
Officially closing the Zanu-PF 14th National People's Conference, he said the Government could not continue giving its employees slave wages. He also reiterated a commitment to revive industry in Bulawayo and other cities and develop measures to enhance rural livelihoods.
"Minister Chinamasa, you can't say you don't have money," said President Mugabe.
"Where is our platinum going, where is our gold going, our diamonds? No, no, no! If they are taking it, ensure that we tell them that we the owners are taking our money. That is why we say the Budget must tell a new story that those who work must be paid well, paid not below the Poverty Datum Line, but above the Poverty Datum Line, beginning with the level of the Poverty Datum Line. Give us time, there will be improvement; there will be a re-awakening. We should not exploit. We can't be slave masters. We can't allow our people to work for nothing."
The conference at the Chinhoyi University of Technology started last Tuesday and was being held under the theme, "Zim Asset: Growing the Economy for Empowerment and Employment." A total of 4 326 delegates attended the five-day event. The party's sixth congress will be held in Harare next year.
President Mugabe said the Government could not refuse to employ qualified nurses as that negated its efforts to educate them, adding that that complicated efforts to enhance access to health to its citizens.
"We are retiring them too early," he said of nurses.
"We say we have enough nurses? We can't have that luxury and we will look at the systems and what systems can work."
The President said Zimbabweans used to work for whites, but now were their own masters.
He said of industries: "We will now raise them up so life can come to Bulawayo. We said on 31 July we were born again, but are our cities born again? New life should come to Bulawayo, to Gweru, to Harare to Chinhoyi etc and only you can give a new life to our cities as we gave ourselves a new (political) life."
The party had earlier, issued among other resolutions, one that urges the Government to declare Bulawayo a special economic zone focusing on textiles.
He thanked the electorate for voting him and Zanu-PF back into power and declared that the poor performance of 2008 would not happen again.
"Thank you for 31 July and for your confidence in me. I won't let you down. We are together, tiri tose, sisonke. We are united like one person and it's your support which has made those in Britain, in America to fear me," he said to a round of applause.
"As soon as I arrive at a meeting, the likes of (former British Prime Minister, Tony) Blair run away. Do I have a disease that can be transmitted to them? Instead of sitting down to discuss, they don't want to discuss. We talk, discuss and stand on principles. I don't move on what I believe. If you are right, you are right, not anyone to tell you that you are wrong."
He added: "Zanu-PF will never go back to 2008. No, you will fight, fight, fight for Zanu-PF to remain in power. That is a variable but you can make it a constant if you work hard."
He thanked Mashonaland West for playing host to a successful conference and urged other provinces to do likewise.
"We must maintain the standard right to the top and assist others to be the bestest," he said.
"That is Zanu-PF, we did the best. We were down in 2008. We were full of tears. Some people were losing heart. Where are we going? Are we finished? Is this the end of the revolution? No. Let's work and at the end of five years, come July, on the 31st, we shall tell the story of recovery and tell it in a thunderous victory. Zanu forever, victory forever, Zimbabwe forever sovereign."
The President urged delegates to the conference to spread the word on the success of the event when they return to their respective homes today. They should also advise their colleagues back home on the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.
"Go back home knowing that you are more nourished than those who remained behind," he said.
"Tell them about the Chinhoyi story, what you remember having learnt here and the resolutions. They will be translated into Shona and Ndebele. Go back and strengthen the party. Have it better organised structurally. We want organic structures that tell the real story of members who belong. Members who believe in the party, they work for the party, they stand for the party."
He said Zimbabweans were a proud people who did not worship whites.
"God created man. I don't read that he created an Englishman. He created man and gave man a woman. He didn't create an English woman, an American woman. He only created a woman for our grandfather Adam. Let no other man fool you because they are pink and you are dark. No. Some of them are damn fools. We have seen them."
He recalled that at some point, the late South African President Nelson Mandela refused to meet former US President George W Bush, saying that the American did not think.
President Mugabe lauded the Chinese for their ability to develop their own technologies for national development that has seen the Asian country becoming a dominant player in the global economy. The President said Zimbabweans must do likewise, expending their energies on research and developing scientific ways of doing things.
Source - SundayNews
