Parly demands solution to poor pensions

By The NewsDay | Jul. 18, 2022 | 2 Min read

Trade unions and workers’ representatives bemoaned low pension payouts by government, with some retirees getting US$35 after decades of loyal service.

BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA A CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) legislator has demanded that Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Paul Mavima must issue a ministerial statement explaining why the National Social Security Authority (Nssa) is failing to provide decent allowances for pensioners.

Recently, Nssa announced that it would give pensioners and beneficiaries groceries and a $10 000 cushioning allowance each in addition to their monthly pensions, but pensioners argued that the allowance was a drop in the ocean.

Trade unions and workers’ representatives bemoaned low pension payouts by government, with some retirees getting US$35 after decades of loyal service.

While raising a point of national interest in Parliament, Mbizo legislator Settlement Chikwinya (CCC) said the monthly payout pensioners were getting was not sustainable.

“May the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare come to the august House and give us a ministerial statement on protecting the pensioners so that tomorrow we may not be blamed for a soft genocide, seeing the elderly dying in our country without doing anything for them,” he said.

“The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare should also explain to us why Nssa is failing to give pensioners decent salaries.

“The pensioners have become a burden to the politicians, the councillors and Members of Parliament. In the event of the unfortunate, these people do not have funeral policies, so it would be the duty of the politicians to give them a decent burial.”

In April, the Insurance and Pensions Commission said it was putting measures to improve benefits for pensioners after 53% of the complaints it handled in the fourth quarter of 2021 were related to low pension values.