WHEELS of justice are set to grind to a halt after public prosecutors indicated they are no longer able to continue reporting for duty because of low salaries in local currency.
The prosecutors are demanding to be paid United States dollar salaries or to work three days a week and use the other days to earn money through other activities.
They have written to
their employer, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), seeking the green
light to report for work three times per week.
“The incapacitation’s context is amplified and made
glaringly obvious by the fact that June salaries meant to sustain prosecutors
throughout July were issued at a time when $1 000 000 was roughly equal to
US$100 and prosecutors are earning around $250 000, which translates to roughly
US$25 a month, 83 cents a day,” the prosecutors said in a letter seen by
NewsDay.
The Prosecutors Association of Zimbabwe (PAZ) is today set
to meet with Acting Prosecutor-General Nelson Mutsonziwa to discuss staff
welfare issues and chart the way forward.
“It is a shared cognisance that genuine regard for the
office of the prosecution and the good work it does in fighting crime and
corruption across the nation would see the urgent need to seek redress to the
unfolding situation which is fast becoming a crisis reaching breaking point,”
PAZ said.
“It is disingenuous on one hand to claim in lip service to be committed to
the fight against corruption yet on the other hand fail to ring-fence
prosecutors against corruption.”
Mutsonziwa could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Newsday
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