Swazi Observer

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CIVIL SERVANTS TO BE PAID ON TIME

By Sifiso Nhlabatsi | 2019-06-19

Following messages that have been circulating on social media that civil servants will not be paid on time this month, Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg has come out to allay such fears.

A message circulating on social media platforms was to the effect that civil servants will not get their salaries on time this month, as government was financially strapped. The message indicated that government needed to raise about E600 million for civil servants’ wages this week. According to the message, raising such an amount was going to take government about a week. The minister of finance when contacted on the matter yesterday, he stated categorically clear that civil servants will be paid on time.

Earlier this year, this publication reported that an amount of E7 194 000 000 will be spent towards the payment of civil servants in the 2019/20 financial year.

Around this time last year, civil servants woke up to screaming headlines that for the month, June there might be no money to pay salaries.

This came after the then Finance Minister Martin Dlamini tabled a report in Parliament that for the month of June alone, about E1.1 billion was required to settle priority expenditure that cannot be postponed.

It was reported that of this amount, E702 million was for salaries for the month of June 2018, and this included payment of on-call allowances of E56 million, while E363 million was for outstanding deductions for pension and cooperatives due in May 2018.

The Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, explained to the public that one of the reasons government was unable to pay coLAwas that they were cash constrained and could not afford to add more to what they can afford.

He promised and assured public servants that despite the financial challenges faced by the country, government was still going to prioritise their salaries, and further assured them that there will be no retrenchments.

When launching the Eswatini Strategic Roadmap a month ago, the prime minister stated that their target was to create 10 000 jobs annually. Already, they have announced eight major investments that would create about 5 500 jobs.

Finance minister Rijkenberg, on the other hand, stated that they are also working around the clock to pay off their creditors, at least by September.

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