GOVERNMENT’s decision to introduce subsidised grocery shops
in army barracks and for all members of the uniformed forces has attracted an
outpour of anger from civil servants and the generality of Zimbabweans, who
described the project as divisive.
Civil servants have also vowed to resist the proposed 2,5%
tax on their salaries to fund the project.
Cabinet on Wednesday resolved to set up garrison shops to
enable all members of the defence forces, who will be on Government Employees
Mutual Services (GEMS) Fund, to have the additional benefit of accessing
subsidised basic commodities that will be sold in the specialised shops within
cantonment areas.
A Civil Service Mutual Savings Fund that will see 2,5%
being deducted from salaries of all government workers for them to borrow using
the facility has also been set up, raising suspicion from other civil servants
that it is meant to feed restive members of the defence forces using the
suffering civil servants’ money.
In a statement last night, Public Service Commission
secretary Jonathan Wutawunashe said the GEMS Fund was a voluntary scheme that
mobilises savings by government employees for the purpose of wealth creation to
benefit serving and retired civil
servants.
He said government had provided seed capital of $100
million, with the possibility of the amount being doubled to support civil
servants by kick-starting the scheme.
“Since GEMS is being launched as a facility for wealth
creation, upon termination of employment, members can withdraw the totality of their
contribution with accrued interest,” Wutawunashe said.
“GEMS is being introduced as part of the expanding
portfolio of benefits to support the livelihoods of civil servants.”
He also said garrison shops for the uniformed services were
based on a self-financing model as they entailed selling of goods to customers,
adding logistical arrangements relating to their operationalisation was being
worked out.
But the Apex Council, an umbrella body for civil servants
labour unions, said the decision by government was made without any
consultation with the workers and there was every reason to suspect it was one
of those schemes to fleece workers.
“Critically, it is not an issue that we can competently
speak to because it is completely coming out of the blues. We have not been
consulted and we don’t know what is going on,” Apex Council spokesperson David
Dzatsunga said.
“We will not dignify it by really giving it too much
attention, except that if it were true, it would be so wrong in terms of how it
is being done.
“Given the history of these kind of schemes that they come
up with, they end up being schemes to fleece workers. We have every reason to
believe that whoever is coming up with that might have a personal interest.”
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
threatened to mobilise its membership and the rest of the civil servants to
resist the “divisive move” by government.
“(Finance minister Mthuli) Ncube is a human epidemic bent
on entrenching poverty and misery among teachers and the earlier we mobilise,
organise rather than agonise, the better. Such thuggery, thievery and robbery
of $10,5 million from starvation wages of teachers per month and $18,750
million per month from civil servants is not only callous, vapid, vague and
vacuous, but monumental injustice that can never be accepted by any civilised
nation 40 years after independence,” PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said
yesterday.
“Reducing soldiers to ridicule and subsidisation by civil
servants is dangerous, a security threat and compromises civil-military
relations.”
The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz)
described the new 2,5% tax as an attempt to destabilise the public service.
“The latest move is a threat to labour justice in Zimbabwe.
Robbing underpaid civil servants to pay another group of civil servants is a
sure sign of a Cabinet that has run out of ideas. We will defend our miserable
wages. Hands off our salaries,” Artuz spokesperson Nation Mudzitirwa said.
“We urge President Emmerson Mnangagwa to read the riot act
and block this chicanery which overtly threatens to compromise the efficiency
of his government. The solution to the current crisis is not a garrison shop or
any of this funny initiative. The solution is production and plugging the holes
of corruption.”
The opposition MDC’s secretary for labour and social
security, Gideon Shoko, said: “Never in the history of labour has an employer
asked some of his employees to subsidise other workers, but the Zimbabwe
government is ironically asking the rest of the civil servants to subsidise
those in the security sector.”Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment