The Government has reportedly failed to pay State University workers their December salaries.
Zimbabwe Universities Allied Workers Union (ZUAWU) secretary-general Jabulani Mpofu told NewsDay that their members were yet to be paid their December salaries. He said:
Salaries have not been disbursed for State university workers. We have been trying to get an audience from the ministry over the matter, but they have not furnished us with any details.
Workers are worried that they are going to the festive season without salaries, there is no festivity for them.
Zimbabwe State Universities Lecturers Association secretary-general Givewell Munyaradzi said:
We continue to wonder why they are treating us like this every year. We complained to councils and even the ministry.
The ministry said the money comes from the Ministry of Finance. Almost more than half of the country’s State university workers have not received their salaries.
In March this year, the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Amon Murwira said the Government was paying block salary grants to all State universities just as a baseline upon which their income should be built.
Murwira said lecturers and other staff at State universities are not hired by the Government but by the universities themselves.
He said universities should be innovative enough to generate their income to augment the block salary grants they get from the fiscus.
Murwirwa also said it was absurd for university staff to complain about poor conditions of service to the Government instead of directing their concerns to their university councils which have the overall authority and financial powers to raise money.
Meanwhile, this year, the Government awarded traditional leaders a 100% bonus as a “performance reward”.
Political commentators said the Government rewarded traditional leaders for playing a key role in mobilising their subjects to vote for ZANU PF during the August 2023 general elections.
Chiefs, headmen, village heads and their messengers were awarded the bonuses both in United States dollars and in local currency.
More: Pindula News