Govt Criticised For "Awarding Magistrates With Hefty Salaries & Allowances"

The government has come under fire for allegedly awarding magistrates with large salaries and allowances when health workers are on strike over paltry salaries and poor working conditions.

For some analysts including Alex Magaisa, a former adviser to the late Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, increasing salaries and allowances of members of the judiciary at this particular moment in time is indicative of a government that does not care about the health sector.  Magaisa posted on Twitter saying:

Revelations that government clandestinely awarded magistrates hefty wage increases as opposed to its treatment of doctors & other civil servants are signs of a desperate & paranoid regime which is obsessed with buying justice & preparing for repression.

The regime doesn’t care much for doctors & nurses because the leadership does not use the local health system. But it needs the magistrates on its side because they are in charge of the justice system. It’s typical of authoritarian regimes to want to capture the justice system.

Doctors have been on strike since the 3rd of September this year asking the employer to increase their salaries which they say were eroded by inflation long ago.

Nurses have also joined the strike also citing incapacitation.

More: News Day; Alex Magaisa