Gvt admits it's broke, says it has $9 billion deficit and "cannot draw blood from a stone" over civil servants' bonuses for 2016

At a meeting over the issue of the 2016 bonuses for civil servants,  the government admitted that it was broke and had no money to pay the bonuses.  Minster of Finance Patrick Chinamasa also admitted that the economy was shrinking and that government already has a $9 billion deficit and cannot afford to pay the bonuses at the moment.

An except from a memo of the bonus meeting written by the Teachers Union of Zimbabwe reads:

The Hon Minister Patrick Chinamasa gave a detailed report on the state of the economy of which he indicated that it is the prerogative of every citizen to participate in the improvement of the economy which has drastically reduced by 4%.  Everybody seems to have lost control of the economy hence the government has a deficit of 9 billion dollars

The Minister was reluctant to promise anything since the coffers are dry and he reiterated that the Government cannot draw blood from a stone .

In an effort to appease the civil servants, Chinamasa came up with an alternative plan which the civil servants described as “far-fetched and hard to believe.”  He offered the civil servants the following alternatives,

Option 1. Offering non-monetary benefits as bonus whereby we invest our bonus into infrastructural development like the construction of roads, hospitals, generation of electricity and the individuals will get proceeds.

Option 2. Offering 50% of our bonus as cash still on a staggered scenario as usual and 50% as non-monetary benefits. The Reserve Bank Governor and Hon Minister Priscillah Mapfumira echoed the same sentiments.

The  Apex Council rejected all the options presented by Chinamasa, although they agreed to make consultations with their grassroot structures. A second meeting is scheduled for the 20th of February 2017.

More: You can read the full memo here