Civil servants to receive bonuses next month

FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has reassured civil servants that they will get their bonuses for the year next month.

Since President Mnangagwa came into power in November 2017, the Government has shown commitment to improve the welfare of its workforce.

In an interview after touring a food manufacturing and processing firm in Bulawayo yesterday, Prof Ncube said:

“Since we came in as a new dispensation, we have not failed to pay the civil servants their normal salaries on time.

Secondly, we have not failed to pay them their bonus on time, so there should be no question about that.”

He said the Second Republic is committed to improving the welfare of its workers thus relentless efforts were being made to cushion them from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.

“We will pay their normal bonus, and of late of course we’ve been negotiating with civil servants. They are receiving the 40 percent adjustment to their core salary and we are continuing with the US$75 payment per month under the Covid-19 allowance.

“That is carrying on and health sector workers are getting a further top up being for those that are in the frontline in terms of

Covid-19,” said Prof Ncube.

“We have a four-tier system. We have got the first tier earning $6 000, the next tier about $3 750, the next tier about $2 500 and the last tier about $1 500 and that’s to deal with the health sector because they are on the frontline.”

He said that was in addition to the 40 percent adjustment and US$75 payment per month.

Prof Ncube said the 13th cheque will be paid next month.

Meanwhile, the Government has said negotiations for salary increment with the National Joint Negotiating Council were underway and any agreement to be arrived at will be announced soon and honoured in the spirit of collective bargaining.

Government has a long history of negotiating with its workers in good faith and it is hoped that any salary increments the parties negotiate will not work against the stability that has been achieved on the financial markets and price stability as this will fuel inflation and erode the gains achieved so far.

Year-on-year inflation for last month slowed down to 659,4 percent compared to 761 percent the previous month, anchored by the progressive macro-economic policies Government is putting in place.

Official figures also show that the month-onmonth inflation last month slid to 3,83 percent shedding 4,61 percentage points on the August rate of 8,44 percent.

Before the Government’s intervention through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, more than $8 billion was circulating outside the formal monetary systems and this was cited as one of the major factors driving price increases and instability on the foreign exchange markets.

It is in this context that the monetary authorities stepped in to stamp out illegal transactions by mobile money agents.

The Government, in June also moved in to promote macro-economic stability as well as containing the run-away inflation by introducing the weekly foreign exchange auction trading system.

Stability of the exchange rate on the auction market has stopped the run of the parallel market exchange rate, slowing down inflation. — @okazunga