Wassira demands benefits for retrenched workers

The withdrawal of benefits saga has emerged in a new badge as some MPs are demanding the establishment of new benefits for retrenched workers.

The development comes three days after the government succumbed to public pressure and reinstated the withdrawal of benefits, initially erased from the list of benefits under the new law.

A social security funds seminar conducted by the Social Security Regulatory Authority (SSRA) for MPs yesterday saw Bunda MP Stephen Wassira, also a cabinet minister, seek the new facility.

He said it was appropriate that the funds establish another benefit to member who are currently jobless, waiting for job opportunities elsewhere.

“Let us make decisions that would make the funds sustain as well as protecting the members, knowing that there are various type of work in which a member can be involved,” he said.

Wassira, who is Minister of State in the President’s Office, Social Relations and Co-ordination, specified that the country needs laws that put forth conditions stipulating who is entitled to withdraw from the funds and the reasons behind.

On his part, the Rev. Peter Msigwa, (Iringa Urban – Chadema) said that MPs “have been driven by what is popular instead of what is right. We should decide on what is right to the people and not just pleasing them, as this will help them in future.”

Nzega MP (CCM), Dr Hamisi Kigwangala advised the social security funds to initiate new benefits which would make members loyal to the funds, like education or investment benefits so as to enable them engage in other income generating activities rather than depending solely on employment.

On his part Kigoma North MP Zitto Kabwe (Chadema) said: “You can’t be a leader who discourages people from saving as without it people become poor, and yet we need even the jobless to benefit from the social security funds.”

The lawmaker for Nyamagana, Ezekia Wenje (Chadema) proposed that it would be logical for security funds to have a provision making members’ contributions serve as collateral thus enabling them (members) access capital in the financial institutions for investment which would be of much help during time of retirement.

Earlier in his remarks, the deputy secretary general of the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA), Hezbron Kaaya said: “We need to be offered a new sort of benefit which will allow the jobless to have something for living which is quite different from withdrawal benefits.”

Commenting on the matter, Dr Aggrey Mulimuka, executive director of the Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE) said that social funds ought to demand the government to repay its debts such the money used for the construction of housing units for the Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service (TISS), the Police Force and the Machinga Complex in Dar es Salaam.

“It pains when we pass nearby Machinga Complex and seeing the structure which is not optimally utilized, yet lots of money the property of the pensioners has been injected there,” he lamented.

However, the Minister for Labour and Employment, Gaudensia Kabaka, said in her response that the government has started repaying a loan used for construction of TISS and Police Force residential houses.

She added: “There is no need to worry if the government wants to borrow as the government is there to stay and will definitely settle all of its debts including the money used for construction of the Machinga Complex.

On her part, SSRA managing director, Irene Isaka informed the lawmakers that pension funds have invested a total of 3.7tr/- in various projects countrywide, while the number of members stands at 913,000.

Based on the estimated country’s population of 45 million the said figure implies that only 2.3 percent or less is registered with social security funds.

Statistics show that 70 percent of formally employed individuals are registered with social security funds, but social security schemes cover only 6.5 percent of the entire national workforce.

The situation is even more pathetic for elders as only four percent of the two million retirees enjoy pension benefits.