Correspondent

A pension benefit has been every working person’s dream, where after years of toil and sweat, one would look forward to a lazy and relaxed life of bliss and, being the envy of the community; revered and treated as royalty, particularly in the rural areas where many people would retire to.

I still vividly recall my uncle whom the community knew as Tohugeza, a name he acquired from his boastful and ostentatious habit of drinking clear beer as opposed to opaque beer.

For everytime he went to his rural home, he would buy himself four quarts of Castle lager that would see him through for the duration of the weekend.

Even at such traditional ceremonies like the “bira” or “kurova guva”, Mudhara Tohugeza would make sure that he has his quart by the side; never mind the temperature of the bottle’s contents, he would be boasting that “isu vamwe tohugeza hwechirungu”, hence the name which with time, became his middle name.

Mudhara Tohugeza had spent 35 years working as a van driver for a wholesale company, where the dress code was formal.

In the course of his working career, a black tie and a white shirt became part of his identity.

Even in the middle of the sweltering heat or when he decides to take to the dance floor during the traditional ceremony, he would make sure that his tie remained intact.

For a man who was used to a formal dress code; a man who used to shun opaque beer, indeed, the ugly turn of events after his retirement had a devastating effect.

Even the process of adjusting to drinking opaque beer was just traumatic.

After receiving his paltry lump sum, Mudhara Tohugeza retired to his rural home where he had built a modest four-roomed house, leaving behind his house in the Joburg Lines in Mbare with tenants.

As fate would have it, his wife of 30 years died 10 years before his retirement.

He was now married to a new wife, 40 years his junior, who bore him four kids before he passed away five years after his retirement.

After Mudhara Tohugeza’s death, his widow, a housewife, was now faced with the vagaries and uncertainties of a bleak future, where she had to contend with the children’s school fees and to provide other necessities from her meagre widow’s benefit from National Social Security Authority.

Essentially, all that which Mudhara Tohugeza had worked for has been wiped out by inflation, leaving the widow with no choice, but to resort to odd jobs, in order to fend for the kids.

Luckily, Mudhara Tohugeza’s house in Mbare went a long way to augment the widows’ paltry NSSA earnings since the house was being rented out.

Indeed, there are thousands of pensioners and widows in a similar predicament, which leaves one wondering if the idea of a pension is really worth the while, particularly in this inflationary environment.

For, it is common cause that most pension benefits, both from NSSA and other contributory pension schemes, barely cover for a basket of basic necessities.

Yet, those in charge of managing pension funds or make investment decisions on behalf of pensioners live in opulence and luxury that shames even the devil himself.

For, it is commonly known that millions are siphoned from pension funds, with poor decisions being made in the investment of the pension funds.

There is also no accountability as to how projects undertaken using pension funds are run, with no one being brought to book in the strictest sense of the word.

Indeed, a real dark cloud hangs menacingly over a pension as a cushion against life’s vagaries at the end of every person’s working life.

This stark reality is ominous, which calls for an urgent need for a paradigm shift, from Government and the whole chain of stakeholders.

For a start, Government should come up with a comprehensive legislative framework that speaks to pensioners and indeed the senior citizens’ social welfare needs, and measures put in place for older persons’ active political participation through a quota system for reserved seats at both ministerial and parliamentary levels.

Alternatively, a special desk must be created in the Office of President and Cabinet that specifically speaks to the needs of this important constituency of older persons.

The older persons’ desk can be a medium through which older persons’ involvement in national development can be coordinated.

Here, one is looking at establishing a reserve force or to come up with brigades of older persons for their active participation in economic development and as resource persons, mentors, counsellors and as career guidance givers.

There is need to revisit the current Older Persons Act, which in its present form is just a glorified wish list, woefully devoid of any substance that speaks to older persons’ expectations and aspirations.

In this instance, the President would appoint a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee that would gather the views of older persons through public hearings nationwide whose findings and recommendations would be incorporated into the revamped Older Persons Act.

This approach once happened not so long ago with regards to the War Veterans Bill currently before Parliament, where the Brigadier General Levy Maihlome (Retired)-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and War Veterans conducted public hearings, leading to the revamping of the War Veterans Act.

There is also a crying need to revamp and or to thoroughly shake this police officer called Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) from its slumber.

How would the nation explain a situation where pensioners and policy holders lost out on entire life savings upon conversion from Zimbabwe dollar to the multiple currency system?

The layman’s interpretation being that IPEC was fast asleep when pension funds and insurance companies had no one to supervise, to monitor or to give guidelines on a standard conversion course that would not prejudice or leave pensioners and policy holders in abject poverty.

Even in the present circumstances where IPEC is suddenly awake, the guidelines given to pension funds on revaluation gains of assets that must accrue to the suffering pensioner, seems to be gathering dust in some pension funds’ offices.

As is characteristic of our regulator, such guidelines were issued without specific timelines for implementation; with the hapless pensioners ever at the receiving end.

Another area of grave concern is to do with governance issues as it applies to most Pension Funds.

Most Pension Funds Board of Trustees are found wanting in that respect.

Take for instance the composition of the NRZ Pension Fund Board of Trustees, one of the richest pension funds in the country, where the general manager of the National Railways or his nominee chairs the board of trustees.

Other members of the board are picked from trade union leaders, who in essence are political creatures whose ascendency as labour barons is merely premised on political rhetoric.

In majority of cases, such political figures’ level of conceptualisation of issues in terms of good governance, their understanding and level of financial literacy and the requite skills in strategic management and decision making is, in majority of cases, found wanting.

Indeed, such a state of affairs at such a high level has the potential to breed compromises, undue influence and conflict of interest in so far as the board’s principled position is concerned.

Perhaps that explains why most pension funds, including the NRZ pension fund, are owed millions in monthly remittances by employer organisations, a factor which has negatively impacted on the welfare of the pensioner.

It is, therefore, against this backdrop that IPEC and the parent Ministry of Finance should come up with specific guidelines in relation to the qualifying criteria for appointment to Pension Funds Board of Trustees.

Indeed, there is need to reflect on pensions and to interrogate the entire concept of social security if it is to remain relevant to the reality of our situation.

There exists an urgent need to formulate and develop measures and policies that are designed to improve the welfare of older persons.

These measures would include creating an environment that gives an opportunity to elderly persons’ adequate basic needs that enable them to live an independent life.

They would look at policy measures that encourage and put into operation, schemes and projects for income generation, that in essence, would reduce older persons’ dependence on handouts and to prevent penury amongst the elderly.

By extension, such measures would also help create employment for older persons through access to loans and other credit facilities, and consideration where possible, as resource persons in critical skills training programmes, with their retentions in employment beyond retiring age after being medically proven fit, as a factor towards reducing old age poverty.

Added to these raft of measures, which are essentially aimed at addressing the plight of pensioners and the elderly, is the need to give serious consideration to the introduction of a social pension, which has been recognised by the World Bank as an effective way to tackle extreme poverty in old age.

The UN in its Human Rights Council Report pointed out that rapid population ageing, particularly in developing countries, requires an urgent assessment of existing policies to protect older persons.

The report further noted that social (non-contributory) pensions are critical in terms of reducing extreme poverty and to achieve social protection for older persons.

Indeed, active consideration of the need to introduce a social pension is premised on the necessity to cushion the citizenry at the end of every working person’s career.

It’s also in sync with social security trends and measures being encouraged by the UN and other International Conventions on ageing that seeks to provide sufficient social safety nets upon retirement.