HARARE – Civil service unions on Monday accused the government of trying to collapse the Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) in order to take it over.
PSMAS was founded by workers in 1930 and provides medical aid to public sector workers.
Owing to civil servants’ poor remuneration, the government agreed to pay 80 percent of their premium contributions, but unions say the government has both rejected an increase to the premiums and routinely delays making payments, leaving PSMAS on the brink of collapse as hospitals reject its medical aid.
Unions representing government workers on Monday handed over a petition to the Public Service Commission (PSC) which last week blocked the holding of the annual general meeting by getting police to deploy at the venue.
The civil servants told the PSC to abandon its “ill-fated and ill-disguised violent campaign to take over control of PSMAS.”
Four umbrella bodies for public sector unions petitioned the PSC to “stop the hostile and increasingly violent interference” in the running of PSMAS.
“It is clear that there is a hostile intent to take over its governance for nefarious reasons,” said the workers.
Unions fear the government could takeover the company, or try to get it privatised with controversial tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei rumoured to be waiting in the wings.
“We strongly believe that the government is trying to induce a problem, to manufacture a problem, so that at the end of the day they will say PSMAS has failed let’s take it over,” said Cecilia Alexander, the Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Service Trade Unions president.
The civil servants are also unhappy that PSC instigated the last-minute cancelation of the 2021 PSMAS AGM while it is busy implementing a 2020-2022 strategy document to “demutualise” or “capacitate” PSMAS which is being done without consulting the society’s AGM.
“It’s clear that the Public Service Commission has been ignoring calls for a subscription increase to PSMAS to cripple its operations to justify your strategic takeover objective,” the unions said in their petition.
“We pledge as unions to resist any attempts by anyone to appropriate our Society which guarantees quality affordable healthcare for our members and urge the PSC and your acolytes to focus on resuscitating the collapsed public health and education systems. Allow the PSMAS AGM to go ahead without any condition from you as you are not a member of the Society.
“Finally, we ask that the employer pays every civil servant a medical allowance as an entitlement so they can choose from the available insurers.”
