Britain pressures Zim to pay $25m to ex-civil servants

Harare Bureau
In an apparent bid to milk a financially-distressed Zimbabwean economy, British authorities are pressuring Government to make annual pension pay-outs of at least $25 million to its citizens who served as civil servants under Ian Smith’s colonial regime. Ironically, the British government has itself reneged on its obligation to compensate former commercial farmers whose properties were acquired under the land reform programme.

About 2 000 British citizens — 400 of whom are now resident in the United Kingdom — served in the Rhodesian civil service and are entitled to pension from the Zimbabwean Government under an agreement between British government and Zimbabwean negotiators at the Lancaster House Conference of 1979.

The Zimbabwean Government paid out the pensions, but only stopped at the height of a foreign currency squeeze in 2003.
Some of the beneficiaries include Rhodesian military personnel.

Estimates by the British Foreign Office six years ago showed that Government will have to fork out nothing less than £25 million annually to pay out the 2 000 ex-civil servants.

The figure, however, falls by £2 million yearly due to deaths.
In a letter of demand addressed to Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche and Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa last December, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Mark Simmonds said Zimbabwe should release the money.

Confirming receipt of the letter, Minister Goche said Government would not be arm-twisted into paying.
When most British colonies became independent, the British government and the emerging government of the territory would sign Public Officers’ Agreements (POA).
Such agreements were designed to protect the pensions of expatriate public service officers of Her Majesty’s Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS) by ensuring the pensions were paid by the majority government on similar terms as before.

The money would be remitted at the exchange rate prevailing at an agreed date before or at independence.
The British government, however, refused to make a POA in the case of Zimbabwe, arguing that the civil servants were employed by the Rhodesian government which had unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965.

Britain later pushed for the commitment to be included in the Lancaster House Constitution.
Earlier this year, British government officials met Zimbabwe’s representatives after Mr Simmonds was taken to task over the pensions in Parliament.
Zimbabwe’s top diplomat in London Ambassador Gabriel Machinga has also reportedly received enquiries.

Responding to a question from Conservative legislator for Christchurch, Mr Christopher Chope, on what steps the British government was taking to “end that default”, Mr Simmonds insisted that Zimbabwe should pay off the pensioners.

“The payment of Zimbabwe public service pensions is the responsibility of the Government of Zimbabwe,” he said.
“We appreciate the frustration and financial burden the non-payment of pensions puts on many pensioners and have continually pressed the Government of Zimbabwe to fulfil their obligations.”

He added: “We continue to pursue a resolution to the non-payment of Zimbabwe civil servant pensions and are in regular contact with the interested parties, including the Overseas Service Pensioners Association (OSPA) and the Federal Pensioners Association in Harare.

“UK officials last spoke with the Director of Pensions at the end of January and are still pursuing a response from the Zimbabwean Civil Service Commission to our letter from December 2013. We have also raised the issue since with other interlocutors, including the Zimbabwean Ambassador in London.”

OSPA is a quasi arm of the British government responsible for safeguarding pension payments to British citizens who served in the civil service of former colonies.
Minister Goche confirmed receiving a letter of demand, which was also copied to Minister Chinamasa.
Cde Goche said Zimbabwe would not pay the pensions due to debilitating Western-imposed economic sanctions.

“We have seen the letter. As Government, it is our desire to pay all our obligations but the sanctions imposed by Britain and her allies have curtailed our capacity to pay most of these obligations.

“We are even failing to pay our local pensioners because of the economic sanctions they have imposed, so how are we going to afford to pay British citizens whose government imposed sanctions on us? We used to pay them but now we can no longer afford to.”
The minister said authorities were preparing a detailed response to the British government.