Opinion / Columnist
One Minister say no worker will be laid off the other says Gvt is broke - something will have to give here
08 Sep 2015 at 13:39hrs | Views
Labour Minister tells the civil servant that no one will be laid off.
"As far as I am concerned, there will not be a single job loss in government as long as there is no disciplinary issue. Rationalisation means we might need to move people from one station to another to plug gaps and consolidate positions," said Labour minister Prisca Mupfumira. She will be forced to eat her own words and this time she will not have long to wait to do so because the government is broke!
The civil service has always been bloated and with the national economy, with it government revenue, shrinking faster than a deflating balloon government has no choice but to off load many of its workers and reduce many of its services. We all have to live within our means and that includes this government.
The tragedy here is government is finally accepting the tough economic reality but only the half of that reality. Zimbabwe's economic meltdown was not caused by the huge civil service wage bill alone; it contributed but only a tiny fraction.
The country's economic meltdown was cause by mismanagement, corruption and institutionalized lawlessness as exemplified by the obnoxious indigenisation law and the vote rigging. For years the regime has refused to even acknowledge these three cancerous problems and blamed the pathetic economic performance on "evil sanctions imposed on us by the British and its Western allies". So for three and half decades the three cancers have been allowed the time and space to fester and spread.
Minister Mupfumira can say what she likes but since there is no money to pay the workers the regime has the tough choice of retaining its bloated labour force and fail to pay them, which the workers will not tolerate for long, or retrench some of the workers. But since nothing has been done to remove the three cancerous tumours killing the economy the regime will be forced to revisit the problem of how to retain a bloated civil service on zero pay again and again.
This is all part and parcel of President Mugabe's ten point plan he announced two weeks ago. He is desperately trying to resist change not knowing that change is nature; you can manage change or it will manage you if you try to resist. Regime change is long overdue and it is coming his ten point plan is meant to resist change and to carry on as before; the plan is totally unworkable.
Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, is saying government is broke and Mugabe is telling his Labour Minister that no one will be laid off. These are two conflicting economic positions, something will have to give and common sense tells me you cannot spend what you do not have!
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Wilbert Mukuri <zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com
"As far as I am concerned, there will not be a single job loss in government as long as there is no disciplinary issue. Rationalisation means we might need to move people from one station to another to plug gaps and consolidate positions," said Labour minister Prisca Mupfumira. She will be forced to eat her own words and this time she will not have long to wait to do so because the government is broke!
The civil service has always been bloated and with the national economy, with it government revenue, shrinking faster than a deflating balloon government has no choice but to off load many of its workers and reduce many of its services. We all have to live within our means and that includes this government.
The tragedy here is government is finally accepting the tough economic reality but only the half of that reality. Zimbabwe's economic meltdown was not caused by the huge civil service wage bill alone; it contributed but only a tiny fraction.
Minister Mupfumira can say what she likes but since there is no money to pay the workers the regime has the tough choice of retaining its bloated labour force and fail to pay them, which the workers will not tolerate for long, or retrench some of the workers. But since nothing has been done to remove the three cancerous tumours killing the economy the regime will be forced to revisit the problem of how to retain a bloated civil service on zero pay again and again.
This is all part and parcel of President Mugabe's ten point plan he announced two weeks ago. He is desperately trying to resist change not knowing that change is nature; you can manage change or it will manage you if you try to resist. Regime change is long overdue and it is coming his ten point plan is meant to resist change and to carry on as before; the plan is totally unworkable.
Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, is saying government is broke and Mugabe is telling his Labour Minister that no one will be laid off. These are two conflicting economic positions, something will have to give and common sense tells me you cannot spend what you do not have!
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Wilbert Mukuri <zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com
Source - Wilbert Mukuri
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