Tanzanian 30-year pension delay

By Noel Mwakugu
BBC, Tanzania

The delay caused misery for the former workers and their families

Some 3,000 angry Tanzanians are staging a sit-in at the Finance Ministry to protest at a 30 year delay in receiving their retirement pay.

The former workers lost their jobs nearly 30 years ago.

About 29,500 former employees of the now defunct East African Community in Tanzania are demanding $400m but the government says it cannot afford it.

They were retired in 1977 when the EAC collapsed after economic rivalry among member states and war in Uganda.

My life has just been full of misery Widow Mariam Hamisi

Tanzania's Finance Minister Basil Mramba announced this week that they would begin payments amounting to $117m, which he said was all that the government could afford, but the process failed to begin as scheduled on Tuesday.

"We have suffered for too long," Mariam Hamisi, a widow in her 50s said, surrounded by her middle-aged children.

"I am here to seek the benefits of my husband who died without receiving his hard-earned cash.

"My life has just been full of misery, children are out of school and getting a meal a day is sometimes a dream," she said.

Promises

Bitter retirees who endured the scorching sunshine for hours as they awaited the release of the funds, claimed that their leaders were being pressurised to withdraw a court case that is demanding that the whole amount be paid to them.

But the chief secretary at the finance ministry, Panieli Lymo, insists that lawyers are working on the settlement.

"As soon as its complete we shall start paying," he said.

According to the secretary of the former workers' group, Jones Moses Katwere, the government has agreed to pay the initial amount and will await further court rulings.

"The government was paid $25m which was cash invested by the community to cater for our pensions and social services in 1984, but it did not pay us then and instead used it for other things," Mr Katwere said.

"Now it's time they pay up what they in fact borrowed."

The government says it will pay the retirees through savings accounts at local banks, and will pay the total costs including their travel expenses for those who have come from the countryside.