There is need to address older persons’ welfare

Apension 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.

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