PUBLIC Service minister Priscah Mupfumira has issued an order freezing all programmes to do with government’s plan to rationalise the civil service in the wake of President Robert Mugabe’s demand to have “fired Green Bombers reinstated”.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
Mupfumira, in an interview with NewsDay yesterday, said the move was in line with Mugabe’s directive.
“Following the President’s directive in Chinhoyi, we came back and consulted the Public Service Commission (PSC). We have since made a decision to freeze all programmes around staff rationalisation until such time we get a clear position on what should be done,” Mupfumira said. “We are not daring anyone, but just following a procedure and a directive.”
Mugabe, following representations from Zanu PF youth league national commissar Innocent Hamandishe at a youth rally in Chinhoyi a fortnight ago, ordered that the fired 2 000 youths be reinstated.
“Our economy is recovering, is that the time we should be dismissing our youths? How can they say we have no money now? Please reinstate those youths, we never, never agreed on that.
“The issue of firing those youths was never agreed. Where is the Ministry of Finance and Labour? Please, stop it,” Mugabe said.
NewsDay has also learnt that different government departments have independently embarked on rationalisation programmes that could affect thousands of civil servants using Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000 that allows government to lay off employees after making particular posts redundant.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
But Mupfumira said this was not a co-ordinated government-wide programme.
“These are programmes that happen from time to time and have nothing to do with the standing policy in which government plans to reduce its workforce. That we have since suspended following the directive,” Mupfumira said.
The Public Service minister added that no one had yet been made redundant.
“The youth officers that are being talked about have not even been given any letter. The process had not started prior to the President’s directive,” she said.
Government reportedly recruited thousands of youths in the aftermath of the 2013 election which has resulted in a bloated civil service gobbling over 90% of State revenue. Conservative figures put government’s workforce at an unsustainable 500 000.
