More than 50 000 fall on hard times

There was panic among the affected workers last Friday, especially those whose payday falls on or around the 20th of every month. Some of them actually expressed the hope that the failure was only due to bureaucratic slowness now exacerbated by the strike.

The situation means for the first time in their lives, many of the affected civil servants have fallen on hard times and are unable to pay rentals, utility bills, honour their stop orders or buy groceries.