Finance minister says civil servants’ bonuses guaranteed

TREASURY will pay the 2026 annual bonuses for civil servants without fail, Finance minister, Mthuli Ncube, has assured.

Speaking during a press conference after a week-long pre-budget seminar with Parliament and government ministers in Bulawayo, Ncube said payment of bonuses remains a top priority under the Second Republic.

“The issue of bonuses is going to be managed without any difficulty. We are going to pay bonuses to civil servants,” Ncube said this weekend.

“As you know, in the Second Republic, we’ve never missed the payment of bonuses for civil servants. We thank them for their hard work.”

Ncube said the government had even extended the gesture to traditional leaders last year.

“You recall last year we even went as far as paying bonuses even for traditional chiefs, which has never happened since independence. We recognize the good work that they do, and we are going to continue as well,” he said.

The minister said the pre-budget process had been constructive, with MPs and ministers making good contributions on how to raise new revenue, how to spend and how to prioritise within the available envelope.

“We know we have an envelope. We know we have to live within it. And, of course, ministers will ask for more. Why not ask for more? But overall, it is very good,” he said.

He added that the government uses a cash budgeting system “we spend what we have, we live within our means” and acknowledged concerns raised by Parliamentarians over disbursements.

He said sometimes budget releases run ahead of actual cash, creating pressure, adding the government had strengthened its Cash Management Committee to align cash flows week-by-week with releases to avoid over-promising and under-delivering.

Ncube said expenditure requests had almost doubled projected revenue, with requests close to ZiG1 trillion against a revenue capacity of ZiG347 billion.

“Everybody is going to accommodate a haircut to fit into the ZiG347 billion projected,” he said.

He reiterated the government would not accumulate new domestic arrears, revealing that “any project above US$2 million now requires Treasury concurrence to avoid over-contracting.”

He said government is following through on the arrears clearance strategy he tabled before Parliament last year.

To raise additional resources beyond the ZiG347 billion envelope, Ncube said, “Government will lean on the private sector through an infrastructure fund to cover road construction, health infrastructure and water infrastructure where user fees can be collected.”

He also said the government will accelerate recapitalisation of the Women’s Bank using private sector resources without diluting its focus on women enterprises and will tap external credit lines.

Ncube said the theme for the 2027 National Budget is: “Accelerating Economic Transformation” targeting agriculture, mining, manufacturing and infrastructure through both resource deployment and policy pronouncements.

“The budget will also absorb shocks, including climate shocks through drought mitigation, social protection for vulnerable households, cloud seeding, insurance for rural families and the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme, and global shocks such as fuel price hikes through tax adjustments to protect citizens,” the Finance minister said.

“We will be able to continue to support the economic and financial transformation, the reforms that are needed so that we can get to Vision 2030.”

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