Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Mozambican Minister of Justice said this Wednesday that she will make a “very big effort” to avoid strikes by judges and magistrates, classes that presented the executive with demands demanding improvements and financial independence.
“If it depends on the Government, under the terms agreed with the judiciary, we will make a huge effort to ensure that there is no room for these strikes,” said the Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, Helena Kida, on the sidelines of the 9th Coordinating Council of the Ministry, which is taking place in the province of Maputo.
At issue are the demands submitted to the Government by the Mozambican Association of Public Prosecutors (AMMMP) on July 17, demanding autonomy and financial independence, salary improvements and security for the class, and by the Mozambican Association of Judges, which suspended the strike previously scheduled for August 9, as a result of the executive’s openness to dialogue.
Helena Kida said that the decisions of magistrates and judges demonstrate “confidence” as a result of the “advances” in the negotiation process.
“The Government will not and cannot disappoint the trust that has been placed in us. It is true and I have always said that most solutions are not achieved overnight (…) But we need to start creating conditions so that these constraints can be removed”, stated the minister, stressing that, as far as the Government is concerned, “there will be no more strikes”.
The Mozambican executive announced on August 2 that it is in negotiations with judges and magistrates to avoid stoppages.
“There is a team negotiating with both classes […] I believe that the Government will be able to better assess and resolve these problems,” Justino Ernesto Tonela, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, told Lusa.
Magistrates demand financial independence, salary improvements and security for professionals in the class and judges complain about an alleged “depreciation of their status” and failures in the application of the New Salary Table (TSU), which has been the target of strong opposition from other professional classes, such as doctors and teachers, who have even called strikes in protest against salary delays and cuts.
Approved in 2022 to eliminate asymmetries and keep the State’s wage bill under control, the launch of the TSU caused wages to soar by around 36%, from an expenditure of 11.6 billion meticais/month (169 million euros/month) to 15.8 billion meticais/month (231 million euros/month).
The TSU cost around 28.5 billion meticais (410 million euros), “more than expected”, according to a document from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the evaluation of the assistance program for Mozambique released in January.
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