(NEWZIMBABWE) Tsvangirai slaps down Biti over wage freeze
COMMENT - This is what happens when you sneak in a neoliberal changeling party through the back door - by making the lives of people miserable through sanctions and threatening foreign invasion. I wonder if civil servants are still enthusiastic about the MDC.Tsvangirai slaps down Biti over wage freeze
by Lebo Nkatazo
02/05/2010 00:00:00
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has slapped down Finance Minister Tendai Biti for announcing an indefinite public service wage freeze.
“The government did not announce a wage freeze,” Tsvangirai declared at a May Day rally organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) on Saturday. “There is no government policy on wage freeze.
“If ever there is going to be such a policy, it must also take into consideration the price freeze. There is no government policy I know of on wage freeze.”
Tsvangirai’s public denunciation of Biti’s major policy announcement made only last week will fuel reports of sharp differences between the two men dramatised by recent violent clashes at their MDC party’s headquarters.
Biti said cash-strapped Zimbabwe’s US$913 million civil service wage bill for 2010 was "not normal economics”.
“Given the lack of fiscal space, the government will maintain a cap on the current wage level whilst attending to other revenue enhancing measures,” Biti declared.
“Normal economics demand that only 30 percent of the budget be channelled to salaries as per the World Bank standards. We are outperforming World Bank countries that have a much higher level of domestic product.”
[I think this bozo, who is after all a human rights lawyer by training, and not an economist, means Normative Economics, not 'normal economics' (and also "Gross Domestic Product", not 'domestic product'.
From Wikipedia:
" Normative economics is the branch of economics that incorporates value judgments (normative judgements) about what the economy ought to be like or what particular policy actions ought to be recommended to achieve a desirable goal. Normative economics looks at the:
* desirability of certain sectors of the economy over others
* desirability of certain actors in the economy over others
* desirability of certain distributions of resources in the economy over others,
* constraints on choices or policy paths which might otherwise be made "
What he is saying is that only 30% of the budget should go to salaries, therefore in Zimbabwe salaries must be reduced until they are 30% of the budget. There is no logical reason for it, other than that it is 'the norm' or average. What he forgets is that in Zimbabwe, there is no official private sector which would absorb the reduction in government incomes. It will reduce demand and make the economic situation worse - but it will live up to the neoliberal free market dogma of 'small government'. In a time of recession and depression, that is disastrous and stupid. This is the return of ESAP or 'structural adjustment'. - MrK]
But Tsvangirai, a former secretary general of the ZCTU, appeared to isolate his MDC party’s secretary general by effectively suggesting the wage freeze announcement was his personal opinion and not government policy.
Tsvangirai had earlier listened to criticism of Biti's announced move from ZCTU bosses – secretary general Wellington Chibhebhe and president Lovemore Matombo.
Matombo blasted: “No-one should freeze salaries. If you want to freeze salaries, why not go ahead and do it secretly with employers, rather than to make a public announcement without even negotiating?
“It shows total disrespect (for workers). We are not afraid of anything. We are prepared to take into the streets.”
Chibhebhe added: “The explanation from the government since 1980 is still the same, that there is no money.
“This very worrying for us because there is money for everything else except salaries of workers.”
Zimbabwe’s public workers are paid an average US$170 monthly allowance, but Biti suggests it is the size of the civil service that needs serious review. He has also proposed a freeze on all new recruitment for vacant “noncritical” posts as part of the measures to cut expenditure.
Biti and Tsvangirai are said to be at loggerheads ahead of the MDC-T party’s national congress next year.
Tsvangirai’s top aide Ian Makone, defeated by Biti at the last congress, is said to be preparing to challenge him again. Tsvangirai’s supporters accuse Biti loyalists of running parallel structures to concentrate power around the secretary general – seen as a front-runner to take over from Tsvangirai.
Labels: CIVIL SERVANTS, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NEOLIBERALISM, SALARIES, TENDAI BITI
posted by MrK @ 9:10 PM
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