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Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa

Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
Civil servants were yesterday spared a Christmas from hell after the government brought forward their pay dates. Teachers, originally set to be paid their December salaries and bonuses on Christmas eve, will now be paid a day earlier on the 23rd, the Public Service Commission said yesterday.

The armed forces will be paid tomorrow while the rest of the civil service, including health workers whose pay date had been set as December 30, have been handed a Christmas present with their pay date now moved forward to December 24.

Pensioners, who usually get their dues on December 30, will be paid a day earlier, said Public Service Commission secretary Pretty Sanguro.

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa last month approved bonus payments to the armed forces, with the rest of the civil service expected to get their 13th cheque this month.

Unions said they still expected the government to meet its pledge and there was no indication the government would not.

Public Service Minister Prisca Mupfumira declined to answer questions yesterday.

The new pay schedule means teachers, who constitute more than a third of the civil service, will be spared the trouble of spending Christmas Eve in bank queues, while the rest of the civil service will just be glad to have their pay dates moved forward by a week.

Apex Council president Richard Gundane said yesterday that the rest of the civil servants expected to be paid their bonuses next week after government paid soldiers and police officers last month.

“Following the consultations that we had with the government, we’re expecting our bonuses as announced by Finance Minister Cde Chinamasa. Soldiers and police officers got theirs last month and we therefore have no reason to doubt that we’ll be paid the bonuses as promised,” said Gundane.

Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) chief executive officer, Sifiso Ndlovu, said the government should honour its promise to pay bonuses.

He said civil servants were disturbed by rumours alleging that the government might fail to pay the rest of the civil servants the promised bonuses.

“There’s uncertainty now following rumours that government might fail to pay the bonuses despite the fact that soldiers and police officers have already been paid,” said Ndlovu.

The government, through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, earlier this year gazetted the new salaries that saw the least paid civil servants earning at least three quarters of the poverty datum line.

The least paid civil servant is now earning $375 monthly, with the poverty datum line calculated to be $505.