Ministry of Labour to find lawyer for ‘Teba’ pensions
Minister of Labour and Manpower Development Henry Mussa on Tuesday disclosed that his ministry, in partnership with the Attorney General (AG) is working on identifying a lawyer to facilitate the release of pension money for ex-miners who worked in South Africa.
Responding to a question from Ntchisi South member of Parliament (MP) Langton Kamwendo (Malawi Congress Party-MCP) who wanted to be updated on the pensions and other related payments for ex-miners the employment bureau of Africa (Teba), Mussa said technicalities bordering on legal interpretation are some of the factors delaying the release of the money.
He said: “I have personally interacted with administrators of the funds to try to convince them to release the money, but the delay is due to, among others, difficulties they are facing in reconciling names of beneficiaries. Out of 3 000 forms only 100 have been reconciled correctly and the rest do not match with what they have there. In total, we submitted 23 500 names from district labour offices to South Africa, but due to similar problems they were returned. However, we have since resubmitted the names and we expected to get a report on who are eligible to be paid. But it’s also important for the ex-miners to exercise patience as the process will be concluded soon.”
This response, nonetheless, did not convince Dedza West MP PhillipoChinkhondo (MCP) who requested Mussa to state when exactly the formerTeba workers would get the money.
Said Chinkhondo: “Most of the ex miners are dying, even their relatives who would have benefited from the money are dying and these delays will eventually result in wrong people benefiting.”
In response, Mussa asked all pensioners or their beneficiaries to open bank accounts with commercial banks to prevent the money landing in wrong hands.
He said: “Those who cannot afford to open bank accounts should sign agreements with their respective district labour offices and advise them on legal procedures pertaining to the disbursement of the pension money.”
In February this year, Mussa asked all ex-Tebaminers to submit their names to their respective district labour offices to facilitate the release of the money.
