BP ZAMBIA PENSION CASE ADVANCES
THE Assessment hearing of the Pension matter involving 236 retirees from BP Zambia Plc (now Puma Energy Zambia Plc) finally recommenced in the Lusaka High Court yesterday before Aridah Chulu.
The Supreme Court of Zambia sitting in Ndola on December 18, 2018 referred the matter back to assessment after hearing the appeal against the first assessment of April 2016. The court stated that in the circumstances of the case, they would refer this matter back to the learned Registrar of the High Court for assessment of the moneys due to the Respondents under a referee.
“In view of the complexity of the computations required to be done, we direct that the Registrar should invoke Order XXIII of the High Court Rules to appoint a Referee to do the said computations. The Referee must be a qualified Actuary. We order that both parties must share the cost of the Actuary equally.”
At yesterday’s hearing, both parties agreed that the best way to proceed with the matter would be to appoint a qualified Actuary to compute the benefits as ordered by the Supreme Court.
Earlier on, the plaintiffs had submitted two proposals of Actuaries who met the qualifications specified in the Pension Scheme Regulation Act of 1996 and as amended by Act 27 of 2005.
The defendant’s lawyers confirmed before the court that they would pick one of the Actuaries proposed by the Plaintiffs’ lawyers who will then be endorsed by the court on November 9, 2020.
Both of the proposed Actuaries are from South Africa because the pension industry in Zambia has not trained any local Actuary for a long time.
Zambian courts have passed four judgments favourable to the BP Zambia pensioners; October 18, 2010 in the High Court of Zambia, February 26, 2014 in the Supreme Court of Zambia, April 4, 2016 in the Deputy Registrar’s Assessment and 18 December 2018 for the second time in the Supreme Court of Zambia.
The BP Zambia Pension case started in July 2002. Since then, 107 of the 236 Plaintiffs have died leaving their families in abject poverty.
In view of the complexity of the computations required to be done, we direct that the Registrar should invoke Order XXIII of the High Court Rules to appoint a Referee to do the said computations. The Referee must be a qualified Actuary. We order that both parties must share the cost of the Actuary equally.”