…accuse ministry of failing to adjust their allowances and of paying them late
Mathatisi Sebusi
THE Ministry of Health stands accused of failing to pay village health workers (VHWs) timeously and not adjusting their M800 monthly allowances as per “promise”.
But the ministry has rebuffed the accusations saying it never promised to adjust the allowances but only to ensure they are timeously paid.
As the ministry’s first point of call in the health delivery system, the VHWs role is very critical in helping communities with health issues.
But disgruntled VHWs who spoke to the Lesotho Times last week said they were not happy with how they were being treated by the ministry.
They said it had maintained a pattern of paying them a lump sum of M2,400 quarterly, instead of M800 monthly as promised.
They also complained the allowances had not been adjusted in the current financial year despite an “undertaking” by the ministry to do so.
Supervisor for VHWs in Mazenod A06 and Lilala A07 community councils, ‘Mapalesa Nyai, told the Lesotho Times that the ministry had “ignored” their longstanding plea to be paid their allowances monthly instead of quarterly.
The ministry had also neglected to effect adjustments on their allowances annually despite promising to do so.
But Ministry of Health Principal Secretary, Maneo Ntene, refuted the claims, telling the Lesotho Times that her ministry had not abandoned its promises to VHWs.
If anything, plans were underway to ensure that they were paid their M800 allowances monthly instead of every three months.
Minister of Health, Selibe Mochoboroane, strongly disputed ever promising to adjust VHWs allowances annually.
Mr Mochoboroane told the Lesotho Times while he sympathised with the VHWs, they should not confuse the ministry’s promise to pay them on time, with ‘promises’ to increase their allowances annually.
While VHWs had been earning a measly M400 monthly for decades. However, in 2021 the 10th Parliament approved an increment of their allowances to M800 monthly.
However, it was under Prime Minister Sam Matekane’s government in early 2023, that the new allowances were actually implemented.
But the allowances were not adjusted at the beginning of this financial year 2024/25, igniting the ire of the VHWs. Neither were they being paid on time.
According to Ms Nyai, they were forced to go for two to three months without getting paid. The ministry had not kept its promise to pay them on monthly basis. They were yet to receive their June 2024 allowances, she claimed.
Ms Nyai said the health ministry had promised them that with effect from April 2024, their allowances would be adjusted to above M2000 monthly.
She said the current M800 allowance was too little as it did not even cover transport fare. To travel to the Matukeng Health Centre, where she was attached, cost her at least M40 daily, she said.
Releasing their allowances as a lump sum after three months, left VHWs worse off as the money could not cover their expenses “not to mention that we receive it late when we would have accumulated debts with interest”.
“I for one end up borrowing money, which must be paid back with interest at the end of the month. Failure to repay the debt at the end of the month, which has become the norm, means that the interest accumulates. I am deep in debt as we speak, and I do not know how I will get out of it,” Ms Nyai said.
“We were promised that by April our allowances would have been adjusted and paid on time, but as we speak that has not happened and we have not yet been paid. When we enquire, we are told that the ministry is working on it.”
Apart from delayed payments of the allowances and non-adjustment thereof, Ms Nyai said they were overwhelmed with work as most VHWs had retired and had not been replaced.
She said the legal requirement was that each VHW should provide health services to between 20 to 25 households. But due to shortage of staff, they were compelled to serve 80 households each.
“Villages are expanding now, becoming bigger and more populated. There are villages that have no VHWs at all. This means that some VHWs, are forced to serve more than one village while others must travel long distances by foot because we cannot afford transport fares,” she said.
She therefore urged the Ministry of Health, to at least replace the 17 retired VHWs in her locale and consider hiring more to support the currently 30 overwhelmed VHWs.
However, Ms Ntene, told the Lesotho Times last week that they had not abandoned their promises to the VHWs. Plans were underway to ensure that they were paid monthly at the same time with civil servants.
The only challenge was that in the first quarter of the 2024/25 fiscal period, her ministry was seized with documenting all the VHWs and storing the data in its systems.
It had taken the ministry time to complete the process because the names with which most VHWs had initially registered, were inconsistent with those appearing on their official national identity documents.
“We have been working on confirming names and banking details of VHWs and those whose names were inconsistent with names they first registered under, we had to start registration from scratch,” Ms Ntene said.
She said they had to be vigilant in the verification of names “to avoid the case of ghost workers repeating itself in the ministry”.
She said they been working with area chiefs for the verification of names and had now completed the exercise. Going forward, VHWs would be paid on time, she said.
On the question of replacing retired VHWs and possibility of hiring more, Ms Ntene said they were aware of the workload on VHWs’ shoulders. Her ministry planned to hire more VHWs, she said.
On the other hand, Mr Mochoboroane, told the Lesotho Times on Tuesday, that VHWs “were already” receiving their June allowances. Going forward, they would get paid monthly on the same day as other civil servants.
He, however, insisted there had not been a formal promise to adjust VHWs’ allowances to M2000, as claimed by Ms Nyai. But the minister said he understood the VHWs needs and planned to fulfil them, circumstances allowing.
“They should not mix issues. We talked about ensuring that they are paid on time, not allowance adjustments. We need to finish with this process before moving to another topic,” Mr Mochoboroane said.
“Truth is, it is my wish to adjust their allowances, considering the hard work they do. But we are not there yet.”
