Posted Friday, 4 March 2011 by John Redfern
Zimbabwe Government Pensions
The Pensions Office has captured the data the FLF sent to them, and
is now ready to commence pension payments. (These will probably be based
on a pensioner’s grade on retirement, and not the full pension.)
However, the Director of Pensions has informed the FLF that the
government still needs to establish a modality for disbursing pensions
to individual bank accounts in South Africa and elsewhere.
With the help of volunteers, we have processed over 800 applications
since 2008. Those who submitted their documents to us for onward
transmission will be the first to receive their money when payments are
resumed.
The Director of Pensions is now looking into which bank or finance house
is prepared to receive pension funds in bulk, and disburse pension
payments monthly to individual bank accounts. The ideal would be for one
bank or finance house with branches worldwide to undertake this, in the
same way as Crown Agents in the UK does for pensioners of the former
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
An article published in the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper of 16
December 2010 stated, inter alia, “The ministry has since asked the
country’s foreign embassies to assist in collecting information from
pensioners as only 1 300 of the 5 600 had responded to their call”. We
are delighted to know that the intention to resume pension payments to
the “Diaspora” has been officially made known to the public, both in the
article attached and in The Herald of 5 January 2011.
It seems that the request from the Public Service Minister has not yet
reached the embassy in Pretoria. In any case, it is not clear in the
article what is expected of the embassies. We have asked the Director of
Pensions to clarify what the FLF’s role should be henceforth.
If the FLF is expected to process application forms for the Pensions
Office, as we have done at considerable cost, both in money and in
volunteers’ time, we will need remuneration. If this is not forthcoming
from the Zimbabwe government, the FLF will have to ask applicants for a
donation in future, unless they are FLF members.
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Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot) (Conservative):
I should like to bring to the House’s attention the plight of former
public sector workers in Zimbabwe, when it was Southern Rhodesia. Their
pensions have not been paid for some considerable time — almost eight
years, since 2003. Today I ask the Minister to consider what he can do
for the aid fund to help those individuals, UK citizens among them, to
regain their pensions.
The Minister will be familiar with the history of the case. Between
12 December 1979 and 17 April 1980, Southern Rhodesia was ruled directly
by the UK. The pension fund that then existed was a consolidated
revenue fund with no trustees. That meant that Her Majesty’s Government,
who effectively took on responsibility for the fund when they were in
government in Southern Rhodesia for that very short period, had a duty
of care. On Zimbabwe’s independence, the UK Government were concerned to
ensure that appropriate provisions were made, and they believed that
there were full safeguards in the new constitution for the pension
arrangements of former public sector workers. The reality, however, was
rather different.
In February 2003, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe failed to make foreign
currency available for those pension payments, which was in breach of
paragraph 2(1) of schedule 6 and section 112 of the constitution. A
number of requests have been made to secure the restarting of the
pension payments and, as I understand it, in September 2009 the director
of the Zimbabwean Government’s pensions office indicated that $3.5
million might be available and asked for applications from previous
public sector workers now living in South Africa, Australia or the UK.
So far, 850 applications have been received from those now living in
South Africa and 350 from individuals in the UK. They are represented by
a body called the Overseas Service Pensioners’ Association, which for
many years has been championing the cause of getting the pensions
payments started again.
OSPA has tried to establish how many individuals are affected across
the world, and the best estimate is 1,200. There are different
estimates, but OSPA believes that that is the right figure. That is
relevant because until we understand how many people are affected, it is
hard to quantify the figures that we are talking about and therefore
reach a ballpark estimate of how much help we are seeking from the
Minister and his aid budget.
Having reached that number and examined the applications already
received, OSPA has calculated that if it allows for a reduction of one
third for options of commutation, which most pensioners have taken up,
and then uprates the figure to reflect the increase in the retail prices
index, the appropriate annual figure to cover all individuals affected
would be £4 million. It has made the same calculation for the back
payment, which comes to £26 million. OSPA is realistic and recognises
that there is no real chance of getting the back payment, but it would
like some support from the Government to help it at least to reinstate
the old pension amount.
OSPA would like the Government to work with the Zimbabwean Government
to identify whether they really do now intend to make sums available,
and to consider setting up a review of what the Department for
International Development can do, using its aid budget or any other
source of funds, to put the individuals affected back in pocket. They
are ageing, so if we do not do something shortly, the money will not
have the value to them that it should.
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