Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has admitted that MDC Alliance workers haven’t been paid their salaries since February, and attributed the delay in salaries payment to the coronavirus pandemic.
Without elaborating how the pandemic stopped the MDC from paying its workers, Chamisa said “MDC workers haven’t been paid during the coronavirus period.”
He was responding to a party supporter who asked him on social media if it was true that his party’s workers have been struggling to get their salaries.
“Mr President I heard, MDC workers haven’t been paid, can you please tell us what are the challenges the party is facing for it to fail to pay it’s workers or is it propaganda from those who are against the party,” Chamsia was asked by a supporter.
“MDC workers have been paid every month except for this Corona period,” Chamisa responded. When asked how he expected them to survive the harsh economic environment without salaries, he could not respond.
Earlier on in his tweet, the embattled MDC leader had said workers are the heroes of any nation and deserved a legitimate Government.
“It’s #MayDay today. Workers in Zimbabwe have toiled endless days and nights, to build a nation of all our dreams. Sadly, many have no right to work in Zimbabwe.
Everyday is a workers’ day. Without labor, nothing moves. Workers demand decent lives and a working legitimate government! Save us!” said Chamisa.
The revelations that workers at the party headquarters have gone for two months without getting their salaries came this week as a Government Minister hinted that the Treasury will be giving the Thokozani Khupe-led faction the $7.5 million of funds provided under the Political Parties Finance Act. It also came as reinstated MDC Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora told the Daily News that efforts to engage the Chamisa faction have thus far hit a brickwall as the “other side has not been cooperative”.
Mwonzora, however, warned that further resistance could result in the party handing Chamisa and Chalton Hwende to the police on criminal charges.
“We have not been furnished with the financial statements from the previous administration and we are in the process of finding out what the old administration did and we are still trying to find out.
“We do not know where the money for the wages of workers went, we don’t know where the more than $4 million they got last year went.
“Workers have told us that they have not been paid in the past two months. We are not sure about the $4,5 million that was received by the party last year.
“We are in the process of redressing the humanitarian situation of the employees because they are the most affected by this lockdown and also failure on the leadership to pay them.
“What we noticed is that over 141 employees had been laid off unlawfully thus condemning them to poverty but we have since redressed that.
“In the absence of the explanation of where the money went we could take criminal proceedings, as for now we do not have knowledge of what happened, we have required information from the previous administration on where the money is and we hope to get co-operation from them before we proceed to lay criminal charges if that is necessary,” said Mwonzora.
