Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Friday blamed sanctions by Western countries for his government’s failure to pay its workers on time, which led to a crippling strike by civil servants this week.
“We have problems with sanctions, the United States is yet to remove them and the EU has removed some of them,” Mugabe said while addressing his ZANU-PF party supporters Friday evening at a stadium in the northeastern mining town of Bindura in a rally televised live on national television.
“They (workers) do not fully understand the problems that we face, it doesn’t mean that we are poor but the payment of salaries can be delayed because of the sanctions.”
The 92-year-old leader vowed to find ways of paying government workers on time saying the current problems are temporary.
“We are solving the problem. We are saying these are troubles for these days only. It will not continue like this because we do not want the doctors, nurses and teachers to go on strike,” he said.
“We use the US dollar,the dollar is printed in America and we don’t print it on our own.”
Mugabe has blamed sanctions by the European Union and the United States for his government failure to deliver over the years, saying some government payments are being intercepted by Western countries.
Government workers in Zimbabwe went on strike Tuesday to protest against delayed salary payments amid growing tensions over the country’s struggling economy.
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