Civil servants bonuses coming

The government has once again re-affirmed its commitment to pay civil servants their bonuses as previously announced.

The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Prisca Mupfumira made the announcement on the sidelines of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conference for Directors in the African region being held in Victoria Falls.

Zimbabwe is among some countries facing challenges in employment creation and the liquidity situation has made it worse.

Parastatals and private companies have been failing to pay workers their salaries and bonuses.

The challenge has spilled over to the government which struggled to pay civil servants its December salaries on time.

This saw some getting their salaries earlier this month but the promised bonuses are still outstanding.

However, Minister Mupfumira said nothing has changed from the earlier position that the 13th cheque will be paid, but said they should not expect it this month as treasury has other pressing issues.

"Now that we have managed to pay December salaries for the civil servants and we also have definite dates for January salaries, it gives us some hope that we should be coming up with dates for bonuses. We cannot just give you the dates which I know is not feasible considering that we are looking at importing grain to feed millions of Zimbabweans facing drought a people. Apart from grain imports, treasury is faced with other pressing issues, so we are just asking for patience on the part of civil servants. As soon as treasury has mobilised resources, we will announce the dates," she explained.

Government began paying civil servants their January salaries this week.

The police and teachers will be receiving theirs shortly afterwards while the rest of the civil servants will get their salaries at the end of this month.