Malawian civil servants who are yet to be paid after being removed from the government payroll are facing a miserable festive season.
About 8,000 civil servants have been removed from the payroll for not complying with the requirement to submit their national identity cards.
A civil servant who spoke to Malawi24 said it is sad to see government removing some servants from payroll during this festive season.
“Am very worried to see our fellow civil servants being dismissed this season. It would have been better if the government had conducted an investigation instead of rushing to remove the civil servants,” he said.
Another civil servant said some of the unpaid government workers have borrowed money in order to celebrate this Christmas.
Department of Human Resource Management and Development spokesperson Kennie Mtonga told the local media last week that civil servants are supposed to be identified in order to flush out ghost workers.
He added that the government has released four circulars over the past 18 months reminding government workers of the need to submit their IDs.
“Many complied, others did not hence the circular,” he said.
Most civil servants affected by the government action are teachers and the Teachers Union of Malawi has since warned that the teachers will down tools next month if those removed from payroll do not get their December salaries.
Over 9 million Malawians registered for national IDs in 2017 and the IDs are used as a primary identity.
