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Cabinet, MP salaries anger public servants
Ray Ndlovu, Mail and Guardian (SA)
April 01, 2011

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2011-04-01-cabinet-mp-salaries-anger-public-servants/

Zimbabwe's public servants are seething over revelations that Cabinet ministers and MPs have received salary hikes of at least 200% this year, while their material position has hardly improved under the two-year-old unity government.

Cabinet ministers and legislators have reportedly earned between $1 000 and $2 000 a month since the beginning of the year, up from as low as $400 and dwarfing the monthly $150 pay collected by most public servants.

Although a June deadline to "review" public servants' salaries has been set by government, it seems highly unlikely that it will meet public servants' demand for a minimum of $500 a month.

Zimbabwe was visited by a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week, which advised the government against giving in to public-sector wage demands, as it could "push the country back into an inflationary spiral" and negatively affect this year's projected 9,3% ­economic growth rate. But angry public service associations have dismissed the IMF's advice as "retrogressive".

Zanu-PF has skilfully exploited the fact that the responsible Cabinet minister is a member of the Movement for Democratic Change to shift responsibility for the government's hardline stance on wages to the opposition party.

Under its slogan, "Our wealth must benefit all", and emboldened by its indigenisation campaign, Zanu-PF is demanding that a slice of the revenue from the Marange diamond fields should be used to pay public servants. President Robert Mugabe promised on a recent trip to Ethiopia to hike public servants' salaries using state revenue from gem sales.

Zanu-PF and the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, which spearheads operations at Marange, claim that the treasury has received $250-million in diamond revenue. The amount is disputed by Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who maintains that it has collected a modest $62-million from this source. It has put him at loggerheads with the public service, which perceives him as personally blocking salary increases.

Biti said that 70% of the Zimbabwe government's revenue was being used to pay public service wages, pointing out that, "by the end of the year our wage bill will be $1,5-billion. Unless I get another billion dollars, I cannot make any meaningful increases for anyone. It is not possible.

This economy is not performing." The issue has also set MDC ministers at odds. The party's Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, the public service minister, believes "salary increases for public servants are long overdue".

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