Renamo Calls On Government To Resign

Renamo Calls On Government To Resign

Maputo, 23 Jan (AIM) – Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, on Monday called on the government to resign over what it called the “disastrous” implementation of the Single Wage Table (TSU) which had “disorganized” the public administration.

Speaking at a Maputo press conference, the chairperson of the Renamo Jurisdictional Council, Saimone Macuiane, said “We were hoping that the TSU would value all the professional classes in the public administration. However, some professionals are continuing to demand wage justice”.

“It is becoming urgent that the government regularize this situation, so that harmony and happiness are installed among the State’s employees”, he declared.

Macuiane claimed that the TSU violates the rights of workers in the public administration to wage justice. “Faced with these facts, there is a clear path that a serious and responsible government should take, which is to resign”.

It should not wait for the opposition to make that demand. “The government itself should say that it is not able to continue”, declared Macuiane.

But at no point did he make any specific complaint about the TSU which, contrary to opposition claims, has in fact sharply increased the wages of most public servants.

On 17 January, the government announced the definitive new wages under the TSU, amounting to an increase in wages for workers of the public administration of well over 80 per cent, and in some cases over 100 per cent.

The Deputy Minister of State Administration, Inocencio Impissa, told reporters that the minimum monthly wage in the state administration rises from 4,689 to 8,758 meticais (from 73 to 137 US dollars, at the current exchange rate). This is an increase of 87 per cent and covers about 52,000 state employees. These new wages have already been paid, as from October 2022.

Higher up the career structure, the increases are based largely on qualifications. Thus, the monthly wage of a mid-level technical staff member almost doubles, rising by 98 per cent, from 7,553 to 14,758 meticais.

Staff with a bachelor’s degree receive an 80 per cent increase in their minimum wage, which rises from 13,565 to 24,538 meticais.

For “specialists”, the wage rise is no less than 144 per cent, rising from 24,882 to 60,758 meticais a month.

But, at the top end of the scale, the TSU does indeed result in a cut in salaries. Impissa said the basic wage of President Filipe Nyusi falls from 331,516 to 265,212.8 meticais a month, which is a cut in the presidential wage of 20 per cent.

Impissa said that the cut in salaries for top officials “is a crucial stage in the implementation of wage reform in the state apparatus”, reducing the wage differentials in the public sector.

Macuiane did not challenge the figures given by Impissa, but simply ignored them.
(AIM)
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