Zimbabwe Civil Servants to Discuss Apex Council Divisions
Jonga Kandemiiri
Civil servants are expected to meet in Harare on Tuesday to discuss issues threatening to tear apart the Apex Council that represents them in talks with the government.
Apex Council chairman David Dzatsunga said the meeting was crucial, adding that unions will use it to discuss the government’s response to a letter from the Zimbabwe Teachers Association president and past Apex Council chairperson, Tendai Chikowore, seeking to represent civil servants in salary negotiations with the state.
In response, the government said it needed more time to allow its lawyers to assess if it was possible to engage the old committee.
Sources said the issue was now threatening to divide the Apex Council with the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe claiming that it was never consulted before Chikowore made the decision.
Negotiations between the government and its workers stalled following the former’s demands that the civil servants put their house in order first before it could entertain them.
Dzatsunga said all the seven Apex Council members confirmed they will participate in Tuesday’s meeting.
He added that also high on the agenda will be the salary issue after the government failed to honour its promise of an inflation-related pay increment that it announced in November last year.
