THE MDC is banking on State funds to pay off thousands of dollars owed to 145 party employees fired last month after going for 11 months without getting their dues.
The cash-strapped opposition party is now waiting for its share from the RTGS$12 million they are set to share with their Zanu PF rivals under the Political Parties Finance Act.
A source told NewZimbabwe.com on condition of anonymity that the Nelson Chamisa led party is in a financial deep hole and was at a loss on how to deal with a labour time bomb posed by its 145 retrenched employees should they decide to go the court route.
“We hear that the party does not have money to give us at the moment. We are just waiting despite there being no communication from the party concerning the situation they have put us in,” said a former employee who is part of those retrenched.
“There is still a huge obligation that the party must meet because retrenched workers are now languishing in poverty.”
Party spokesperson Daniel Molokele directed all questions to secretary general Charlton Hwende whose phone was not being answered.
Chamisa is set to receive $3 596 400 after coming second with 29.9% of the national vote during the disputed July 2018 elections.
The Political Parties Finance Act grants a 5% national vote threshold for parties to be eligible to benefit from the public purse. The system operates on a proportional basis.
The workers from various MDC offices across the country had gone for 11 months without salaries before being relieved of duties.
They were fired barely a month after Chamisa publicly dismissed claims his party had any such plans and that it was failing to pay its workers.
The former employee they they were yet to consider legal recourse in the matter.
Last year, Chamisa was forced to dig deep to appease some restive party loyalists who had made up the bulk of their election agents at last year’s polls.
They had not been paid their promised US$100 by December last year with Chamisa assuring them of US$60 instead. – Newzimbabwe
