Mozambique: President acknowledges difficulties in settling overtime owed to public employees

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Mozambique: President acknowledges difficulties in settling overtime owed to public employees

1:14 CAT | 14 Jul 2025

Photo: Presidency

President Daniel Chapo, on Friday, acknowledged difficulties in settling overtime payments owed to public employees, but promised continued efforts to pay the outstanding amounts.

“We have challenges in terms of financial resources, but these challenges cannot lead us to stop fulfilling our obligations as a state to our fellow public employees,” Daniel Chapo admitted on Friday in response to questions during a meeting with public employees in Maputo province.

Daniel Chapo said that his government had decided to move forward immediately with the gradual settlement of overtime debts owed to public employees, especially in the health and education sectors, which, he admitted, have not yet been paid in full.

In the same speech, the Mozambican president called on public employees to work hard to combat corruption, which he described as an evil that hinders the country’s development and prevents the construction of vital infrastructure.

“It is important that each of us, as public servants, be an active player in the fight against corruption, and to achieve this, we also need to work to ensure that the public service has more ethical and moral considerations – to understand that I am a public servant and it is my duty to serve patients with professionalism,” said Chapo.

For three years, the health sector has faced strikes and work stoppages called by the Association of United and Solidary Health Professionals of Mozambique (APSUSM), which represents approximately 65,000 health professionals from different departments.

The Mozambican National Health System has also faced severe pressure in the last two years as a result of strikes called by the Medical Association of Mozambique (AMM), demanding improved working conditions.

Mozambican teachers have also, through strikes and work stoppages, been protesting delays in overtime payments for two months and 18 days in 2022, for all of 2023, and for all of 2024, as well as demanding “better alignment” with the Single Salary Table (TSU).

For the education sector, the government announced in March that the 2022 debt had been paid in full. The 2023 debt, estimated at 3.2 billion meticais (€46.4 million), will be paid in three instalments, the last of which is to be incorporated into the 2025 State Budget.

In February, the Mozambican government announced that it had made available approximately 1.5 billion meticais (€21.6 million) to pay overtime owed for more than two years, primarily to teachers and healthcare professionals.

Source: Lusa