Own Correspondent|Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has proposed to rationalise Foreign Service missions in a move aimed at reducing Zimbabwe’s high wage bill which currently stands at over 90%.

Ncube made the submissions at the 2019 Pre-Budget Seminar held in Bulawayo recently.

Ncube’s proposal seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to a report tabled in Parliament recently that embassy employees at various missions were wallowing in poverty and compelled to do extra work (menial jobs) to survive due to late disbursement of salaries.

The finance minister said the country is currently sitting on a 92% wage bill and the government is utilising hefty amounts of its income on salary payment leaving no fiscal space for infrastructure development.

He said rationalisation of foreign service missions simply means cutting down of embassies like having one ambassador for three or four neighbouring countries with one office, a move which will ultimately results in the lowering of the wage bill.

This will mean that there is likelihood of only one ambassador for neighbouring countries like South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho who are in the same ‘geographical bloc’.

Zimbabwe has more than 20 missions abroad and some legislators have previously called for the shutting down of some arguing that Harare had no meaningful business with most countries.

However, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been preaching the gospel of re-engagement making foreign missions a necessity.

This might pose a ‘headache’ for the finance minister lest he decides to shut down some foreign missions.

M&T