Civil servants protest again over delayed salaries

Civil servants yesterday gathered at Capital Hill in Lilongwe to protest against non-payment of November salaries for some of their colleagues, more than two weeks into December.

The civil servants, who last week also marched from Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) Roundabout through the Paul Kagame Road to present a petition to the Lilongwe district commissioner, have threatened to conduct more protests should government delay their salaries further.

Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) Central Region chairperson Rufai Nachamba said they gathered to discuss the issue of their festive holiday in the wake of non-payment of their November and December salaries.

“Government has not honoured its part by not paying November salaries for some of the civil servants and our salaries for December. In the circular asking us to go on forced leave, government promised to pay all our December salaries by December 16th which is Monday next week.

“If nobody has received the December salary by today [Friday], we doubt that we will get the salaries on Monday. We are seeing no chance of getting our December salaries also and this is a cause for concern,” said Nachamba.

During the gathering, some civil servants argued that there was no need for them to go on holiday before getting their salaries, but the union leaders reasoned with them to still proceed on leave.

“What this means is that if government will not pay our salaries by December 16, we will all gather again to demand our salaries,” said Nachamba.

He said the other issues raised in the petition, include demands for government to rescind the newly introduced expenditure controls, stoppage of posting away Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) aviation staff union leaders and arrest of all senior government officials involved in authorising cashgate cheques and looting of funds from the public pulse at Capital Hill, are awaiting the elapsing of a 14-day ultimatum.

CSTU president Eliah Kamphinda Banda last week accused the country’s leadership of punishing all civil servants by introducing the stringent measures when, he said, the looting of public funds was championed by a few top government officials.

“The control measures give an impression that every civil servant is a thief but the President and all senior government officials know who was stealing the money. The control measures are oppressive and will cripple service delivery at all levels. The general public will end up suffering.

“Every civil servant must be paid timely and adequately,” said Kamphinda.