Cash-strapped Zimbabwe offers workers land in place of bonuses

The cash-strapped Zimbabwe government has offered to give its workers land and other non-monetary benefits as payment for their 2016 annual bonuses. However, the civil servants rejected the payment options, demanding that they be paid in cash.

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira and central bank governor John Mangudya on Wednesday met with the workers unions and offered to pay the workers with residential stands, a cash stipend coupled with non-monetary benefits and property investment bonds.

Mupfumira was quoted by the state-owned Herald newspaper on Thursday as saying another meeting will now be held on February 20 to map the way forward and hopefully conclude the discussions.