Zimbabwe breaks wage freeze to raise Mugabe's pay

Zimbabwe breaks wage freeze to raise Mugabe's pay

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE on Thursday raised president Robert Mugabe’s salary by $1,4 billion in the current year, breaking a recent government directive freezing all wages and prices.

In the original budget for 2007, Mugabe’s salary was put at $62 305 000 but was revised by $1,462 305 000 in a supplementary budget announced by Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi on Thursday.

Last week, Mugabe invoked the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures), decreeing that "no employer shall increase the remuneration of any employee on account of an increase in a consumer price index; on account of an increase in any official or unofficial rate at which the Zimbabwe dollar may be exchanged for any other currency, increase in a consumer price index and an increase in any official or unofficial rate at which the Zimbabwe dollar may be exchanged for any other currency."

The order said salaries or fees can only be made in future with specific approval from the national incomes and prices commission, a body headed by Mugabe, and without any link to the inflation rate which currently stands at over 7 600 percent.

"The net effect of the charges will be to push inflation down since all increases will be by less than the current inflation rate," opined the state-run Herald newspaper when the measures were announced.

It added: "Those who breach the standards set by the commission when increasing pay, fees or prices can be fined... jailed for up to six months, or given both punishments."

In a move designed to avert worker discontent, Mumbengegwi also raised the tax- free threshold from $1,5 million to $4 million.
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