Fury as each worker is asked to donate shs10,000 to Covid-19 task force

A section of Ugandan workers have taken to social media to express their anger over the proposal by the national Covid-19 task force in which it wants each worker to donate shs10,000 towards fighting the virus.

In a proposal the Covid-19 task force has asked various Chief Executive Officers of private companies to ask their employees donate shs10,000 per person to help government supplement the “already strained” Ministry of Health in its efforts to combat the virus.

“As good corporate citizens, we would like to request each Chief Executive to extend our appeal to all your employees to dedicate part of May’s payroll and donate at least shs10,000 per employee to support the cause,”  a letter by the task force chairman Emmanuel Katongole  and chairman fundraising subcommittee , Patrick Mweheire reads.

Mweheire later emphasized that they are targeting at least 1.5 million formally employed workers in a bid to raise about shs30 billion.

Fury

After announcing the proposal, several Ugandans have taken to social media to express their disgust with the national Covid-19 task force.

“You shared the shs 20 million and we kept quiet. You also shared the 40m still we are quite busy suffering in our houses. And now you want our own money,” one Hakim Ssonko said on twitter.

Kyadondo East Member of Parliament Robert Kyagulanyi also known as Bobi Wine said, “As government demands shs10,00 0 from struggling Ugandans to ostensibly fight Covid-19, they are dishing out shs40 million to MPs who voted to amend age limit. As they blocked Ugandans from returning home, those close to power continued to come in. It becomes clearer why our struggle is moral and urgent.”

"At this point, 2 months into lockdown, regular middle income peeps are in DMs begging for just 10k to buy food to feed themselves. These same people have been paying taxes through PAYE, every time they purchase a beer, etc. Now how can they be asked to donate to government? How,” said Anne Whitehead .

Using hash tags ,  Mujooga basajja mwe and Keeping my 10k, the social media commentators insist that deducting shs10, 000 from their salaries would be unfair in such a time when a number of them were laid off work.

Others insist that the lockdown has had a big toll on them and deducting anything from their money would be adding insult to injury.

President Museveni will later today, Monday address the country on the way forward after the expiry of the 14 day lockdown extension.

Uganda’s Coronavirus cases now stand at 227 whereas the recoveries are at 63.