
Maputo, 27 Sep (AIM) – The Mozambican Justice Minister, Helena Kida, claims that the government cannot urgently meet the demands made by the Mozambican Association of Judges (AMJ) as a result of financial constraints that the country faces.
According to Kida, who was speaking on Thursday, in Maputo, on the sidelines of the seventh National Religious Conference, which take took place in Maputo under the slogan “Religious Confessions, United in Building a Culture of Peace in Mozambique”, the government will continue to hold meetings with the judges in order to avoid strikes.
The AMJ decided not to go ahead with the strike announced for 9 August, given the government’s openness to negotiations over their complaints, which are related to the implementation of the Single Wages Table (TSU) in the public administration as from 2022.
The judges believe that their interests were seriously damaged by implementation of TSU. They are also demanding financial independence of the judiciary so that the courts and the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) become independent of the government. The judges are also insisting on better security conditions.
According to Kida, the government has come to the conclusion that some of the demands are not immediately answerable
“Let me give you an example: the strike had been announced for August, at a time when the budget had already been approved. But solving purely financial issues requires a budget. There were also some demands such as better housing conditions, which means we have to buy or we have to build, and that takes time”, she said.
The Minister said that the government is studying a way of deploying a police unit to protect the judges as well as allocating weapons to them.
(AIM)
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