Mozambique: Diname workers unpaid for more than six months – O País

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Mozambique: Diname workers unpaid for more than six months – O País

12:31 CAT | 04 Nov 2022

Photo: O País

More than 70 workers at Mozambique’s National School Material Distributor (Diname) have not been paid for more than six months.

Employees have downed tools in order to force payment of their wages, but the Ministry of Education and Human Development (MINEDH), which oversees Diname, says it is waiting for money owed.

Diname workers in Maputo point the finger at the Ministry of Education, which they say has cut the company out of the process of distributing school supplies, and Diname is therefore also leaving employees to fend for themselves. “After six months without wages, still nobody can tell us anything, so from now on, we will no longer distribute school supplies, so what will we do?” asked Diname employee Eugénio Francisco.

Andrade Matsinhe, another Diname worker, says that “in the conversations we have had with the Minister of Education, we were overcome by fatigue. She promised to solve the case, but no salaries were deposited in our bank accounts for six months. They maintain that the process is at the Institute for the Management of State Holdings (IGEPE) for the transformation of Diname into a public company, but nothing is happening to date”.

MINEDH meanwhile promises to pay the salaries, but without specifying when.

“What is happening is that, in recent days, there are debtors who will be able to settle some debts they have with the company [Diname] and, as soon as they do so, we will be able to pay the workers’ salaries,” MINEDH spokesperson Feliciano Mahalambe said.

Diname, which was created to support the Ministry of Education in the distribution of school supplies, is in the process of transitioning from a state-owned company to a public company. Meanwhile, as a state-owned company, Diname lost the possibility of distributing school supplies, because the process is carried out through a tender, and state-owned companies cannot participate in tenders promoted by other state entities.

READ: US$17M per year: Provision of the school book “a complex process which comprises several steps”

Source: O País