Zimbabwe ups civil servants' pay

Zimbabwe ups civil servants' pay

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE has raised salaries of civil servants and military personnel by up to 300 per cent amid rising worries over possible protests by citizens hit by an economic meltdown.

The move to expand the payroll budget is likely to provide fresh fuel for Zimbabwe's galloping inflation, which at more than 900 per cent is the highest in the world.

"Government has seen it fit to bring about relief to all public servants to ensure that they are able to meet their daily needs," the state-run Herald quoted Mariyawanda Nzuwa, chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC), as saying.

The salary hikes, which will be valid for at least eight months, mean the lowest grade government worker will now earn the equivalent of about $US150 per month, while the lowest paid member of the security forces will gross $US272, Nzuwa said, without giving comparisons.

The Herald said teachers, long singled out among the most underpaid government workers, would now get a minimum gross monthly salary equal to $US332. This would see the lowest-grade teacher taking home at least $US272 ($A361) a month, up from $US100.

"We would have wanted to do more, but that can have an unacceptable impact on the program of economic turnaround," Nzuwa told state radio.

He and other PSC officials were not immediately reachable for comment on Thursday.

The salary hikes follow huge increases in the prices for basic commodities and services.

Private doctors recently doubled their charges and this week government hospital fees soared. On Thursday the Herald said water costs in the capital Harare would go up by 10 times next month.

Local media have reported that Zimbabwe's security chiefs have urged President Robert Mugabe to increase the salaries of the armed forces to ensure their loyalty against protests threatened by the main opposition.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has vowed to press ahead with the demonstrations, which Mugabe has said would be ruthlessly crushed.

Political and economic analysts say the protests could find support among a broad range of Zimbabweans, who have seen the country's once thriving economy collapse with breaking sewer systems, water and electricity cuts, uncollected garbage and roads riddled with potholes.

Mugabe's critics blame the catastrophe largely on government policy, including its move to seize white-owned farms to give to landless blacks - a step which gutted the once-key commercial agriculture sector.

Mugabe, now 82 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies mismanaging the country and says Zimbabwe is the victim of domestic and foreign enemies bent on thwarting his efforts to redress the inequities left by colonialism. - Reuters
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