By Own Correspondent| Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has dismissed hopes that Government will pay civil servants their salaries in US dollars.

He said unions, who are pushing their members to ask for US dollars should stop misguiding their members into believing that government is able to give them salaries in US dollars.

In an interview with The Standard, Ncube said because government does not produce US dollars, it had no capacity to pay its workers in forex.

Below is an excerpt of the interview between The Standard (OM) and Ncube (MC):

OM: What is your assessment of the impact so far of the measures you introduced in your maiden budget?

MC: There is no resistance, people are complying. Of course, any major change in policy that impacts people will cause a reaction because they are adjusting.

I don’t think there’s any major negative reaction. Of course, we are hearing people requesting even salaries in US dollars.

Of course, government doesn’t, as you know, produce US dollars, all we know is that the US dollars are allocated  at the central bank to productive sectors, to areas of need such as fuel, fertilisers  and so forth, so there is no question of government providing salaries in US dollars.

I urge the leadership of those unions, who are pushing their members in that direction to desist from misguiding their members into believing that government is able to give them salaries in US dollars.

Government does not produce US dollars in the first place.

I urge them to desist from misleading their members, it is not fair that the enlightened leadership misleads their gullible members in this way.