National Aids Council fails to pay poor villagers

The National Aids council has failed to pay village aids workers from Bulilima Village in Plumtree for work done on an AIDS survey.

According to the villagers, the National Aids Council NAC, employed them in March last year to do a survey on Client Satisfaction in the district and the villagers were due to be paid $5 for each questioner completed.

The compilation of the data involved the villagers to walk up to 40kms within the district to the clients. NAC had initially promised to provide them with bicycles to move around the district but these were never provided forcing the villagers to do the survey on feet.

At the end of the contract in November last year the villagers claim that NAC adjusted the remuneration from $5 to $1 per questioner. When the payment was finally made, the villagers were instead paid 30 cents on each questioner. The villagers each completed between 120 and 150 questioners.

According to the villagers, the local programme coordinator Ronald Hanyane is not cooperating with them and refusing to explain why their remuneration was reduced from $5 to 30 cents.

The villagers have since threatened to go and demonstrate at the NAC provincial offices in Gwanda to demand for their payment or seek the intervention of the Matabeleland South resident Minister Abednico Ncube to have their money paid.

Comment could not be obtained from the National Aids Council offices in Gwanda. Hanyane however insisted that the villagers had been fully paid for their services.