Thank You President Mugabe

While heading towards the bank yesterday accompanied by a family wearing smiles, I pondered on what would have become of me had the bonus escaped us this month again. Now that I have received my 13th cheque, I will be able to tie up loose ends and so will be most of my colleagues. Thank you President Mugabe!

In our rich Shona language, our elders say muromo wevakuru hauwiri pasi. Whatever the elders say will come to fruition and if not, then you are not part of them. When President Mugabe promised government workers that they would receive their bonuses, some people thought he was politicking. As civil servants, we knew it might take time considering the liquidity challenge in our country but we knew it was coming. We had all the trust because the words had come from a trusted mouth. We have vast experiences with President Mugabe's promises that always came to fruition.

President Mugabe has government workers at heart. He has been one of us and he will always be with us in joy and tribulation. He knows the critical role played by the civil service in the economic transformation of the country. Zimbabwe has a blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset). The nation pinned its hope on Zim-Asset. That blue print needs drivers who must operationalise it. That is where the civil servants come in. The civil servants need to be motivated to drive the national economic agenda with all their heart. It is dangerous to work with an uninspired workforce, more so when you want to give them critical responsibility of government business.

One day God will allow President Mugabe to rest. The civil servants will greatly miss him and those who have not yet discovered the gem in him will definitely do so when he is gone. We will miss the privileges that the man is fighting for us.
We saw Cde Patrick Chinamasa who is the Finance Minister, announcing last year that government would not pay bonuses as from 2015 to 2017. We saw him sandwiched by some ministers who also thought that bonus was not a right for civil servants.

However, President Mugabe said: "When Government bestows a benefit on civil servants, that benefit cannot be withdrawn because it has become a right." It was quite refreshing to hear words of wisdom from the President against some forces that wanted to take away that right as if the money was coming from their purse.

Some ministers have poor human relations and whenever they are appointed into a ministry; their first priority is to raise an axe on workers. We were told that we were lazy chaps who do not deserve bonus. Suggestions were proffered to have these bonuses paid based on performance. We were labeled drunkards just because we had demanded the bonus that the head of state had promised us. We were simply claiming our rights that the president bestowed on us. I hope these elements will not lose sleep over our bonus.

With the caliber of these ministers, we wonder what will become of our welfare when President Mugabe is gone. It appears he is alone in the fight for the welfare of government workers. We wish if the hands of time could be turned back so that we stay with longer.

Mathew 11verse 29 says: "Learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls." It was Jesus advising his disciples to learn from him. Ministers must learn from President Mugabe and they will find rest for their souls.

Government should continue to improve the welfare of its workers. While we appreciate the economic challenges facing the country, there are other non-monetary incentives that can be extended to civil servants. Most of them have no roofs above their heads yet there is vast state land around our urban areas. The civil servants can be organized into cooperatives for the purpose of developing their residential stands. The purchase price of these stands must be very minimal with payment plan being spread over a number of years. That way, the meager salaries they are getting can be channeled towards other essentials.