ZIMBABWE
Photo: New Zimbabwe
The Government of Zimbabwe is ready to implement a series of austerity measures including massive retrenchments in the country’s Public Service.
Government workers say they have been betrayed, as this move is contrary to President, Emmerson Mnangagwa’s election promise to create employment.
The Public Service wage bill, which eats up 90 per cent of Government revenue, leaves little space for investment in major infrastructure development projects.
Mr Mnangagwa put a further burden on the Budget when he increased the salaries of the military and the rest of the Public Service by 22 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively, earlier this year.
He made the promise to create jobs the cornerstone of his presidential campaign in the run-up to the disputed 30 July elections, which he won by a wafer-thin 50.6 per cent.
He has now done an about-turn on job creation.
In an article he authored in the UK’s Financial Times, Mr Mnangagwa vowed to implement tough austerity measures.
He said a large and inefficient public sector could not be allowed to hold back private enterprise.
“We are reducing the number of Ministries, limiting foreign travel and perks for officials, and retiring or redeploying senior officers,” Mr Mnangagwa wrote.
He said the process of change would not be smooth.
“Some pain and discomfort along the way is inevitable … but, as a passionate reformer leading a reformist Government, I know there is no other way,” Mr Mnangagwa wrote.
“We cannot allow anything to slow us down.”
In his pre-Budget presentation to parliamentarians last week, Minister for Finance, Mthuli Ncube said attention would be given to wage containment measures.
He listed as his key priorities enforcement of the Public Service retirement policy, maintaining a freeze on filling non-critical posts as well as rationalisation of Foreign Service missions.
Harare, 18 November 2018
