CIVIL SERVANTS WANT 208% HIKE IN HOUSING ALLOWANCES

MBABANE – The National Public Servants and Allied Workers’ Union (NAPSAWU) has called for the increase of housing allowances by 208 per cent.

Currently, housing allowance for civil servants ranges between E600 and E650 per month, and if the 208 per cent increase were to be granted they would get about E2 000 per month. Musa Mdluli, Secretary General of NAPSAWU, said there were thousands of civil servants who had no government accommodation and, therefore, lived at home or rented flats. He said the current allowance scale was very low because a normal two-bedroom flat, for instance, costs no less than E2 000 per month.

“For a long time we’ve been calling for the increase in this allowance because one cannot get a decent flat or room at E600 in this day and age. Consequently, some civil servants stay at their homesteads, and in most cases, very far from their workstations. So this means that they spend a lot on travelling costs on a daily basis. Even the monthly travelling allowance, which is about E150 per month, needs to be increased too,” said Mdluli.

He stated that government’s efforts to provide housing were at a snail’s pace considering that there were about 37 000 civil servants, and more still being hired.

Therefore, to enable houseless government employees to find accommodation at close proximity to their workstations, they had to be given allowances that were in line with commercial rent,” Mdluli said.  “As for travelling allowance, we currently get 17 cents per kilometre, which is far less than the E10 to E20 we pay for public transport on a daily basis. Some civil servants earn less than E5 000 and you find that half of their salaries go to transport costs.

There is no progress in life in this kind of situation. Government must provide allowances that will enable one to live,” said the secretary general. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Service’s first performance report, which was recently tabled by Minister Patrick Mamba, revealed that a total of 1 335 (75 new and 1 260 renewed) houses were allocated to government officers between April and July this year.

“At least 45 pool houses (those that can be used by any government department) were vacant and were used to accommodate civil servants.Some challenges faced with housing include poor conditions, high demand and very low supply. Some officers don’t report when moving out of government houses hence it results in vandalism of property. Leased houses come at a high cost,” read the report.

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