Nampula training allowances delivered in cash and in double after protests

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Nampula training allowances delivered in cash and in double after protests

5:15 CAT | 22 Sep 2016

Over 1,300 people recruited to register households in the northern Mozambican city of Nampula for the distribution of mosquito nets finally received their training allowances on Tuesday, according to a report on the independent television station STV.

They had been trained over the weekend and were told that they would receive an allowance of 400 meticais (about 5.3 US dollars, at current exchange rates), 200 meticais for Saturday and 200 for Sunday, essentially to allow them to buy meals.

But despite repeated promises, the trainees were not paid, and when no money was forthcoming on Monday, they rebelled, erecting barricades and blocking traffic along a major Nampula thoroughfare. Police arrested ten of the protestors, accusing them of being the ringleaders.

The payment was the responsibility of the Malaria Consortium, which is working in partnership with the Ministry of Health on malaria prevention.

All returned to normal on Tuesday when, to the surprise and delight of the protestors, the Malaria Consortium paid each of them allowances, not of 400, but of 800 meticais. This sudden outburst of generosity had no immediate explanation.

The allowances were distributed in cash and not, as initially threatened, in transfer to m-pesa accounts. M-pesa is the mobile banking service operated by the mobile phone company Vodacom. Many of the trainees do not use Vodacom, or do not have m-pesa accounts.

But despite the solution to the payment problem, the work of registration has not yet begun. According to Dares Zaina, the director of the Nampula district health services, all the material necessary for the registration exercise has not yet arrived from Maputo. Until it does the registration cannot start.

For more on this subject: https://clubofmozambique.com/news/watch-protests-snack-allowances-nampula-end-one-injured-disturbances-mozambique/

Source: AIM