As hundreds of pensioners line up outside a bank in central Harare in the hope of collecting their pensions, military veteran Elias Nyabunzi has a sense that he has seen this all before. If there is cash available, he will collect the equivalent of just $26, down from the $400 he was getting a few months back. A decade ago when he went to collect the lump sum he was also entitled to after 25 years in the army...
The Government is working with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and banks to ensure that pensioners access cash for their pension payouts. The country has been experiencing cash shortages that have seen members of the public literally camping at banking institutions who are failing to satisfy their clients. The hardest hit, however, are pensioners, with some now being forced to sleep on bank pavements for more than a night in anticipation of cash. Minister of Public Service, Labour ...
The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) will soon effect an upward review of pension payouts to improve the welfare of pensioners and cushion them from the economic challenges. This follows a Government decision in July this year, to award a once off discretionary bonus equivalent to a month’s pension to cushion pensioners from the general increase in the cost of living. The actual percentage increases could, however, not be ascertained this week, as NSSA is still in the process...
The Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) says it has made “significant progress” on institutional and regulatory reforms in keeping with recommendations of the Justice Smith-led Commission of Inquiry. The Commission of Inquiry focused on the conversion of insurance and pensions values from Zimbabwe dollar to the United States dollar, but it also included other reform proposals. Although progress had been recorded on other aspects of the pensions reform agenda, IPEC pensions director Josphat Kakwere said development of the proposed...
Retired couple Teddie and Vesta always imagined they would live out their golden years with dignity. He is 85, and served one company for 46 years as a cleaner, eventually rising to become a receptionist. Vesta says that increasing inflation has robbed them both of a comfortable retirement. A year ago Teddie's monthly pension was worth $80 (£66), it's now worth $10. "I am saddened when I see my beloved sitting in that corner from morning to night," Vesta...
Zimbabwean Tourism Minister Prisca Mupfumira was charged in court on Friday with corruption involving $95 million from the state pension fund after questioning by the newly formed Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC). Mupfumira is the first senior government official to be interrogated by the commission, which was appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week after he promised tough action against graft. The prosecution laid out charges ranging from alleged abuse of state pension fund money to finance Mupfumira’s political campaigning to...
Zimbabwe Association of Pension Funds (ZAPF) is saying the introduction of Statutory Instrument (SI) 142 has reduced confidence in policyholders and shareholders in the pensions industry that has been on recovery path during the multi-currency regime. The multi-currency regime was introduced in 2009 after a decade-long hyperinflation which eroded prescribed assets and cash at banks for pension fund members. However, it was scrapped last month by authorities. In an e-mailed response by ZAPF director-general Sandra Musevenzo, policyholders and shareholders were starting to...
Payments to 200,000 retirees on Zimbabwe’s public pensions scheme could be delayed this month, the national social security agency said, after a foreign currency dispute erupted between local banks and a payments software vendor. Zimbabwe is battling an extended foreign currency crisis which has affected key imports such as electricity, fuel and medicines. Many firms with foreign ownership are also struggling to repatriate dividends to non-resident shareholders. Its National Social Security Authority, a mandatory public pension scheme, said on...
About 50 000 pensioners have not received their pension payouts with unclaimed pension funds now amounting to more than ZWL$27 million, the industry regulator has said. Speaking during a meeting with funds trustees in Chinhoyi yesterday, Insurance and Pension Commission (Ipec) spokesperson, Lloyd Gumbo, said the regulator was worried about the substantial amount that is lying idle while the owners are probably wallowing in abject poverty. "The commission is concerned with the number of pensioners who do not know...
Both government and the private sector are doing something on 'hardship allowance' for their workers whilst NSSA pensioners continue to sing the blues. One Hon.MP raised the plight of the suffering pensioners in Parliament early this month but the discussion never went far, with Hon. Sekai Nzenza saying government was seized with the matter. To date the elderly NSSA pensioners are all ears hoping to hear something fruitful but the silence is alarming. Most NSSA pensioners are...
