adminSince the introduction of the use of multiple foreign currencies as legal tenders in 2009, sad stories of how pensioners have been thrown into poverty have been dominating headlines in newspapers. While the plight of pensioners has been clearly spelt out in the stories and at meetings to find solutions to the problem, nothing concrete has been done to help the retired workers.
Last year Finance Minister Mr Tendai Biti wrote to the Insurance and Pensions Commission, the insurance regulatory body, demanding an explanation concerning complaints about the paltry benefits. That was a welcome development but we do not remember the IPEC responding or if it did then the response is still to be made public. In the meantime pensioners continue to suffer. Some of them have chronic illnesses that require them to take daily medication. In addition to buying food and attending to their general upkeep, they also need money to pay bills such as rates, water, and sewer, refuse collection and electricity.
On Thursday the Zimbabwe Pension and Insurance Rights Trust (ZimPIRT) held a workshop in Bulawayo where pensioners complained that pension funds and insurance companies were ripping them off.
Most of them complained that they were earning between $8 and $40 per month despite the fact that they contributed for several years, their entire working lives, towards their pensions and other insurance covers in preparation for life in retirement.
ZimPIRT general manager Mr Martin Tarusenga said insurance companies were ignoring insurance policy contract terms and that was the reason why pensioners were suffering.
Mr Tarusenga’s point was buttressed by Minister Biti in November last year when he said pension and insurance policies were binding contracts that had to be honoured.
“The companies say that the contributions were wiped out by inflation, but they’re not considering the true value of contributions and assets before the hyperinflation period,” Minister Biti said then.
One of the pensioners at the Bulawayo meeting on Thursday Mr Joshua Weller said insurance companies and pension funds were using pensioners’ money to invest in properties but the owners of the money were not benefiting from the investments.
The insurance companies and pension funds always argue that the Zimbabwe dollar contributions of the pensioners and others who had taken life or investment insurance policies were eroded by inflation. But pension funds and insurance companies are among the richest companies in Zimbabwe because they bought properties ranging from residential, commercial and industrial. They are making money from rentals and that money should find its way into the pockets of pensioners in decent amounts, not the sickening amounts they are paying at the moment.
The probe into the loss of pensions and other investments that a lot of Zimbabweans had made in preparation for the future when they could no longer be actively employed should be done expeditiously.
The IPEC says it is not convinced with life and pension funds’ explanation that Zimbabwe dollar era schemes and policies lost value to inflation and wants the actuarial valuations revisited and contributors compensated “fairly”, possibly through the liquidation of property portfolios.
The insurance regulatory body should move on the issue so that it does not become another talk shop because right now pensioners are wallowing in abject poverty yet they prepared for their future.
Online Reporter