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Government and civil servants unions last week hit a deadlock in their talks over salary payment dates after Government moved back pay dates. Both sides agreed to re-engage this week.

For its part, Government explained in a circular that it was facing an acute shortage of money to pay salaries for civil servants on time, due to a contracting revenue base. On the other hand, the workers raised very valid points — they have monthly obligations to meet, including a basic one — funding transport to and from the work station.

First and foremost we commend the two parties for choosing the path of engagement against the prayers of those who wish for confrontation through demonstrations. The truth of the matter is that Zimbabwe, along with other countries in the region if not the globe, is facing a dire economic situation. The fall in raw commodity prices on the international markets, reduced imports by China and a generally sluggish global economy have cut the projected earnings of many governments, not just that of Zimbabwe.

We believe this is a situation which civil servants and related institutions appreciate far better than political opportunists and their excitable media in the opposition, who see in every negative development in the country an opening for wildcats strikes and demonstrations after failing to win elections. That is why these brain dead media opportunists are trying to instigate strikes over delayed salary payment dates for civil servants, hoping that way to have something more exciting to write about, after failing to get people on the streets through Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T.

Government’s dire financial situation has been exacerbated by a crippling El Nino-induced drought which has affected the entire Southern African region. This led to widespread crop failure last season, necessitating massive food imports. This is an act of nature for which no country can ever be adequately prepared and we commend Government for putting the lives of the majority of most vulnerable members of society ahead of everything else. We therefore see nothing embarrassing, or to be embarrassed about in admitting that pay dates for civil servants have been moved due to resource constraints.

We have already indicated above that we fully understand the plight of the civil servants. They must buy food, pay rents and commute to their work stations. They must also meet medical expenses like everybody else. The deferment of salary payment dates is not something to be taken lightly.

We believe Government is seized with this matter. That is why it is engaging the civil servants, through their representatives, at the highest level in the form of Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Labour Minister Prisca Mupfumira and Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya.

That means that the parties must engage in good faith. Both sides must put their cards on the table. The options are limited.

Like we have always maintained, we don’t subscribe to the low-minded culture of demonstrations and violence to try and achieve certain ends. There is no ready cash at the moment and demonstrations cannot produce it. We can get fantastic headlines and pictures in newspapers. But those serve only to worsen the economic situation.

Everyone is anxious for greater investment, local and external. You don’t get that by engaging in acts of violence. Who wants to risk their money where everything might be destroyed tomorrow because people have not been paid?

Alternatively, Government could be forced to the wall, in which case it succumbs to clear pressure from the IMF and decides to cut its wage bill drastically overnight, from the current 83 percent of its revenues. That entails a massive lay-off of its workforce, so that it retains a basic complement it can pay on time.

We don’t believe civil servants themselves would want Government to go that route.