Harare — Faced with a restive civil service that has for long demanded to be paid in USD amid the country’s comatose economy, the Zimbabwean government has pledged to pay its workers an equivalent of 500 USD each as funeral cover upon death.
The development that has received a backlash from furious government workers like the country’s striking teachers, comes despite most civil servants having their own funeral policies, subscriptions of which are deducted from their monthly earnings.
According to the government, the 500 USD for funeral cover which comes at the courtesy of the cornered regime here, will be paid to a surviving spouse, adult children, or agreed dependent.
But, infuriated by the development, leaders of the country’s teaching union, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, Obert Masaraure, said ‘we demand USD 520 per month in our lifetime; the livelihoods of our families can’t be deferred to our graves.’
Even as government workers fumed at the development, government officials appeared adamant about the development.
“Starting immediately, government will pay an equivalent of US500 in funeral assistance for any civil servant who passes away. This is regardless of any funeral policy the member may have. The money is paid to a surviving spouse, adult children or agreed dependent,” Nick Mangwana, Zimbabwe government’s Permanent Secretary of Information, said in a statement.
Yet, the Southern African nation’s civil servants have been demanding their wages to be paid in US dollars or at a rate equivalent to the country’s local currency—the Zimbabwe dollar.
Currently, Zimbabwe’s government workers like teachers earn an equivalent of 35 USD monthly, a situation that has seen teachers countrywide downing tools claiming they have become incapacitated to keep reporting for duty.
Reacting to the announcement to reward government workers at death, Zimbabwe’s former Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi who is in exile in South Africa, said ‘an incentive for dying has been pronounced by the Zimbabwe government. Shall we say congratulations?’
Besides Mzembi, another irate Zimbabwean took to twitter lashing out at the government move to reward its dead.
“What will we do with the money when we’re dead?”, tweeted one Van Lee Chigwada.