THE Public Service Commission has included solar equipment provision in its basket of non-monetary benefits for civil servants.
The solar project is meant to benefit all civil servants from every grade and it will be implemented in phases.
In a statement, the Public Service Commission Secretary, Dr Tsitsi Rosemary Choruma said the issuing of solar equipment was done through a low-cost loan shared with workers’ representatives in a presentation made by the Commission.
She said this was shared at a National Joint Negotiation Council (NJNC) and Health Service Bi-partite Negotiating Panel (HSBNP) workshop held at Kingdom Falls from January 27 to 31, 2020.
Dr Choruma said at the end of the workshop, the establishment of a solar loan facility for civil servants was adopted as an action point to be implemented.
“The addition of solar equipment provision to the baskets of benefits is in line with the government’s steadfast objective to cushion its employees and improve their conditions of service through the augmentation of monetary benefits with non-monetary incentives,” she said.
Dr Choruma said the Government is committed to ensuring that conditions of service for all civil servants are enhanced and that it remains willing to continually engage workers’ representatives within the context of the National Joint Negotiation Council.
She said the development was among many measures implemented by the Government to respond to the needs of civil servants. Employee motivation, Dr Choruma said, is a critical consideration for the Government in the pursuit of NDS1 and Vision 2030 imperatives.
“The Commission recognises the need to implement this project with haste and is currently seized with the task of securing a partner or partners to support and enable the rolling out of it. It also appreciates the resources available within the country and would like to harness and build upon them to make use of renewable sources of energy such as green energy in a cost-effective and technologically-smart manner as possible,” she said.
The Public Service Commission said green energy sources in Zimbabwe include solar, biogas and lithium among others which are one of the key components used in the manufacturing of rechargeable batteries.
The commission further stated that the National Domestic Biogas Programme in Zimbabwe is successfully developing a market-driven domestic biogas sector with over 150 biogas digesters having been constructed so far.
The Commission’s secretary said there has additionally been a gradual increase in the number of biogas plants in the country.
“Zimbabwe which possesses the largest lithium reserves in Africa has been registering developments in lithium mining. The latest such developments are at several mines dotted around the country, including the Arcadia project in Goromonzi. This is considered to be one of the world’s largest hard rock lithium resources,” said Dr Choruma.
She said the Public Service Commission is alive to the availability of these lithium deposits and is looking forward to the possibility of these and other relevant resources being harnessed to augment the implementation of the solar project. – The Chronicle
