"Govt Really Tried Its Best To Improve The Salaries For Civil Servants" - Finance Minister Ncube
Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube has said the government tried its best to improve the salaries for civil servants.
Public sector workers want pay hikes and have spent the past three years calling on the government to pay them their pre-October 2018 United States dollar salaries of around US$540.
Speaking recently in the Senate, Midlands senator Morgen Komichi (MDC Alliance) said civil servants were too underpaid that they could not embark on meaningful projects. He said:
Civil servants’ salaries are too little and not sufficient for one to embark on a project, or even build a house. It is not enough even for food.
In response, Ncube said the government had tried its best to improve the salaries of civil servants. NewsDay cites him as saying:
Government really tried its best under the circumstances to improve the salaries for civil servants. We have not missed our bonus payments since 2018, and since then, I declared that bonuses will be paid as a 13th cheque every year except that we have changed a little bit for those who are in positions of director and above.
They will only be paid upon performance assessments which will take effect from January or February next year for their 2022 performance. That is when those bonuses will be honoured. The rest of the civil servants are being paid bonuses.
Early this year, the government said it would consider increasing the US dollar component salaries of civil servants and also review their local currency component.
