More money in the pockets of UNZA pensioners

GOVERNMENT through the Ministry of Finance last week released K48 billion towards the payment of the retirement benefits for the former employees of the University of Zambia (UNZA).

Some pensioners at UNZA suffered for a long time because of the government’s failure to pay them their terminal benefits.

However, the pensioners’ financial burden was lessened. This follows the government’s release of the K48 billion last Friday as announced by the acting Minister of Education, Mr Elvis Nkandu.

Mr Nkandu stated that the government would release K50 billion towards the payment of the retirees’ terminal benefits.

The payment of the pensioners’ terminal benefits entails more money in the pockets of the UNZA retirees. It is a fact that the retirees from the government institutions suffer a great deal owing to late payment of the terminal benefits.

The worst scenario of the delayed retirement package to the retirees is that they are reduced to beggars and they are in most cases unable to meet the basic necessities of life.

There are still many retirees who have not yet been paid their terminal benefits and there is need for the government to clear the backlog of the retirees’ terminal benefits.

Besides the delay to pay the UNZA retirees, the serving employees are not paid their salaries on time. The workers at UNZA resort to strike action to press for their salaries.

What the new dawn administration has done by paying the UNZA retirees their benefits is commendable. Moving forward, the government should pay the retirees from other government institutions.