Zimbabwe's pay schedule breached, army still not paid for July

The government of Zimbabwe has failed to follow a pay schedule for civil servants at a time the country is facing serious shortage of cash.

Under the arrangement, the army and other security services usually received salaries earlier than other civil servants, in the middle of June when the security forces were to be be paid, the government postponed payment to June 27.

Reports emerged last week that the government had failed for the second consecutive month to pay salaries of army officials on time (middle of July). According to some unnamed officials at the time, the government did not communicate a new payment plan to them.

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has noted that the current crisis was as a result of severe revenue under performance which had led to cash flow challenges.

The Ministry added that it was the cash flow challenges that necessitated the proposal of new pay dates for the month of June (a situation that has extended to July) in order to ‘‘allow for the mobilization of requisite resources.’‘

Cash shortage in Zimbabwe means govt will pay various departments/employees at different times
(Messy) pic.twitter.com/A73z2LrR6m

— Samira Sawlani (@samirasawlani) June 17, 2016

The new pay dates followed the convention of prioritizing the security agencies whiles other sections of the civil servants are paid later.

The June pay schedule is as follows:

• Zimbabwe National Army – 27 June, 2016
• Air Force of Zimbabwe – 27 June 2016
• Zimbabwe Republic police – 30 June 2016
• Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services – 30 June 2016
• Education Sector – 7 July 2016
• Health Sector – 14 July 2016
• Rest of Service – 14 July 2016
• Pensioners – 19 July 2016

A section of civil servants in the embattled southern African country laid down their tools in protest of the non payment of salaries as promised by government. Their action led to a shut down in the capital, Harare, and other parts of the country.

The government has stated that the economic challenges, even though temporal, were as a result of economic sanctions that had been imposed on them by the West.

A police crackdown ensued when commercial transport operators clashed with the security services in anti-corruption protests.