Beira City Council promises to pay New Year bonus in full – Mozambique

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Beira City Council promises to pay New Year bonus in full – Mozambique

5:59 CAT | 29 Dec 2016

O País / Daviz Simango, Beira Mayor

The Municipal Council in the central Mozambican city of Beira has promised to pay the full New Year’s bonus to its employees.

The bonus is known as “the 13th month”, because it is equivalent to an extra month’s wages. On Tuesday, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Adrian Maleiane, announced that the government only has enough money to pay 50 cent of the bonus this year.

But, if municipalities have their own sources of funds, outside of the state budget, there is nothing to stop them paying the bonus in full to their own workers. So far, however, it is only Beira that has publicly announced that it will do so.

The mayor of Beira, and leader of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Daviz Simango, announced the decision on Wednesday.

“We have made the due provisions”, said Simango, cited in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”. “It was a question of management and of thinking of the well-being of others”.

The purpose, he said, was to ensure that all Beira municipal workers and their families would have a decent festive season.

The municipal workers, he added, are “the pride of Beira”, and should not be prejudiced by the current economic situation, which he blamed on “mismanagement and corruption”. He insisted that the municipality is not breaking any rules, since it enjoys sufficient autonomy from the central government to make this payment.

Not all municipalities are in this fortunate situation. In Quelimane, capital of Zambezia province, which is also run by the MDM, the December wages were not paid until after the Christmas weekend (in contrast to the central government, which made sure that all its workers received their December pay several days before Christmas.

Speaking on the independent television station STV, the Mayor of Quelimane, Manuel de Araujo, said the December wages were being paid as from Tuesday. He blamed the delay on the failure of the electricity and water companies to hand over money owing to the municipality, and on a reduction in the amount that Quelimane receives from the central government via the Municipal Compensation Fund.

Simango leapt to the defence of Araujo, arguing that the problems in Quelimane were due, not to mismanagement, but to the economic crisis (including company closures) and the military clashes between Renamo gunmen and government forces, which made it difficult for municipalities to collect taxes.

Source: AIM