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NSSA's arrogance mirrors the system
Joram Nyathi, The Zimbabwe Independent
January 19, 2007

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=20&id=9829&siteid=1

I DIDN'T know how to describe the guy temporarily in charge of the National Social Security Authority (NSSA): haughty, self-important, conceited or ignorant. That is the acting general manager, Amod Takawira.

It's enough that he has been acting in that capacity for five years for one to understand the danger that he poses to the image of his employer.

In an interview with The Standard last week, Takawira allegedly said the $12 900 paid to pensioners a month was a lot of money. He said people who earn up to $130 000 contribute too little at 3%, which translates to about $3 900 per month matched by the employer's contribution. He insisted this amount was insignificant to his organisation. He didn't say which sources provide him with "significant" incomes and what they use it for.

The gentleman was responding to complaints that senior managers at NSSA virtually live in what President Robert Mugabe once described as the "sphere of angels", referring to our diplomats abroad. For instance, senior managers are entitled to vehicle loans after three months of probation. A year down the line they graduate to housing loans. These attract a breathtaking annual interest of 5% at a time when the rest of us accursed Zimbabweans cannot expect interest payments of less than 400% from commercial banks.

Takawira said NSSA needed the "best brains" in the country to manage its investments hence the need to give the managers incentives. To this end, NSSA had bought 70 vehicles for its workers. The managers also buy at book value the vehicle they use after every five years. Most companies do the same, he said. Which is probably true.

He then wondered aloud whether The Standard didn't have a similar scheme for its employees. I indeed wish we had, but that is besides the point.

My quarrel with Takawira is over his pretentious attitude that he doesn't know that we contribute to NSSA against our will and we have no say in how the organisation spends our money.

The issue is not about the amount, which Takawira calls "too little" but that that amount is literally extorted from taxpayers who would rather make their own choice about where to put their money. It is about accountability in the way NSSA spends that money and parasitic parastatals as a species.

Takawira talks the same way Harare Commission chair Sekesai Makwavarara does, that the measure of her performance at Town House is whether or not she is able to pay the workers and not service delivery to ratepayers. What is the benefit to pensioners of NSSA getting the best brains on the market yet they can't survive for a day on the paltry $12 900 it pays them? That amounts to 15 loaves of bread of the cheapest quality. But that is immaterial to the illustrious guy who heads NSSA who appears to believe his mandate is to ensure his managers have vehicles and houses, and is not concerned about the welfare of those who make such luxuries possible.

I said I wished Zimind Publishers P/L could offer similar facilities to its workers. But we are not so blessed like NSSA which doesn't have to sell any service to earn those monthly contributions — it is a parasite feeding on our sweat. Privately-owned media have to operate under the most iniquitous conditions to earn every penny. That is a tall order in a country where unemployment is nearly 80%, inflation is over 1 200%, the breadbasket for a family of six is above $351 000 yet an average worker earns around $60 000 a month.

Takawira can check with Nathaniel Manheru who knows that we don't make $1 million a week. Yet we must still contribute to NSSA to make sure its managers live in the sphere of angels.

The issue goes beyond a pecuniary debate when one considers that what NSSA pays out to pensioners is not enough to feed one person per day. It assumes both an ethical and moral dimension.

While the average worker in Zimbabwe doesn't earn enough to feed himself, he is compelled by law to contribute to an institution that promises to take care of his needs in old age when in reality it cannot. The institution benefits only those it employs.

By the time the average worker has paid his rent of $30 000 per room, set aside a few dollars for food, transport for himself and the kids and a huge amount for water and refuse charges and electricity bills, he literally has nothing left for medical expenses, let alone investment in anything profitable to help him in old age.

I could therefore not stomach it when NSSA's boss boasted that their policies are "replicas" of government policies — which to me reeks of unaccountable expenditure and upside-down priorities where those in power think of buying fighter jets and other military paraphernalia while foreigners feed the starving masses.

I am told somewhere in Murehwa they have built a beautiful mortuary while local hospitals have no drugs. One minister proposed recently that they needed more jails to ease prisoner congestion, instead of creating jobs to reduce unemployment which is largely blamed for rising criminal activities.

Parliament needs to review NSSA's mandate as a national institution and ensure it serves its purpose in the long-term. Meanwhile, I have come to the conclusion that the guy at NSSA is a disgrace to his principals and the institution he purports to serve.

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