The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Sunday News Reporter
THE Government has refuted claims that it has despatched auditors to all its departments to identify civil servants aged 50 and above with the view of retiring them as part of efforts to reduce the wage bill.
This comes as the Civil Service Commission has embarked on an audit of Government pensioners to clear the list of pensioners who have since died.
Last week the private media alleged that every work-station had an auditor gathering information on employees with the aim of changing the civil service retirement age to 50 years.
Responding during an oral answer to questions without notice session in the House of Assembly, Deputy Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Services, Cde Tapiwa Matangaidze said there was no audit exercise with the aim of altering the retirement age.
“Indeed, I would want to confirm that it is not Government policy at this point to retrench employees. There is no policy on that. As we stand right now, the report that is in the newspaper going to the effect that there are people looking at our Government employees is not factually correct. The situation is as remains,” said Cde Matangaidze.
In an interview with Sunday News, Apex Council chairperson Mr Richard Gundane said there was now panic within the civil service sector as it was not clear why Government was collecting details including the ages.
“We are also in the dark on what really is happening. We are yet to meet so we discuss the matter but all we know is that there have been people going about looking for this information but we don’t know what this information is for hence people are now speculating that it has to do with retiring some people.
“However, we will continue consulting our membership and even the Government to find out what really is happening and also plan a possible way forward,” said Mr Gundane.
He said they remained hopeful that Government would not take this route, especially after the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Services, Cde Prisca Mupfumira, assured them that no one would lose their jobs.
Meanwhile, the Civil Service Commission last month commenced an exercise where they are re-issuing certificates of life to all Government pensioners, a move that is expected to rid the system of possible ghost pensioners.
In a telephone interview, Deputy Minister Matangaidze said this was just a routine exercise to update their books on the people they were paying pensions to.
“That is just a routine exercise. There is nothing much to it. We want to ensure that we are paying pension to the right people and whether we don’t have any people whose money we are disbursing but they have since passed on,” said the Deputy Minister.
In a notice, posted last month, the commission advised all Government pensioners to approach their district offices to complete certificates of life by 30 October, when the exercise will end.
“The Civil Service Commission wishes to advise all those in receipt of pension from the Government of Zimbabwe, that is, State service, war veterans, Zimbabwe Ex Political Prisoners, Detainees and Restrictees, National Heroes’ dependents and death or injury on duty pensions, to go to the nearest district offices to complete certificates of life from 31 August to 30 October.
“The purpose of certificates of life is to certify to Government that those to whom it is paying a pension are still alive and entitled to their pension. Government pensioners are therefore requested to come in person with positive identification in the form of original national identity card or valid passport and copy of the same, certification of copies will be done on submissions of the certificates of life,” reads the notice signed by Mrs Pretty Sunguro, the commission’s secretary.
Sunday News also visited Milton Junior School where Bulawayo is holding the exercise and found long queues of pensioners waiting to get their certificates of life.
Some pensioners who were interviewed claimed they had been frustrated by the slow pace it was taking to process the certificates.
“I have been here for the past three days but still haven’t had my papers processed. Today I had to come here at 3am hoping to be served. I hope they just quicken the process,” said Mr Zenzo Ndlovu, a 72-year-old retired teacher.
