More than 15 civil servants’ associations and eight staff associations met in Harare yesterday to receive feedback on Government’s position on last week’s meeting.
In an interview after the meeting, Public Service Association president Mrs Cecilia Alexander said civil servant’s representatives met and disagreed with the Government offer.
“They said they are incapacitated, hence there is need to peg their salaries equivalent to US$475 at the interbank rate for the minimum worker,” she said.
“We will continue to engage the Government until our demands are met.”
Meanwhile, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube gave further updates on Government efforts to ensure everyone had enough food.
“Impact of climate change, issue of drought, making sure there is food on the table; food security is key and we have put resources in place,
“We will continue to mobilise resources for importation of grain, but also climate proofing agriculture by investing in irrigation.
“We are already mobilising resources for the winter Command Agriculture Programme. Energy security is also important, making sure that we pull resources for importation of power from South Africa and Mozambique and supporting Zesa to ensure it has capacity to generate power and speeding up the issuances of licenses for independent power producers and for solar energy.” He said.
Minister Ncube said it was important for Government to stabilise the local currency so that citizens have confidence in the money and stop using foreign currency.
“We want to stabilise our currency, make sure the Zimbabwe dollar is stable and we inject more cash into the economy; higher denomination notes are coming through,
“Once we stabilise our currency, it will make sure our prices do not shoot up. On the fiscal front, we have to continue to manage things prudently; we do not add to currency volatility by monetising budget deficit and government expenditure” He said.
The Government last week offered civil servants a 100 percent pay rise, in a move that will result in the least-paid worker taking home $2 033, up from $1 023 per month.
