The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) acting general manager, Charles Shava, said that the deduction of pension contributions from civil servants’ US dollar salary component will continue over the next two months.
This deduction, which was implemented retroactively from January 2024, began in June under the direction of the Public Service Commission.
Speaking during a session of the IPEC/NSSA Journalists Mentorship Programme for 2024 last week, Shava said (via NewsDay):
The law says contributions to NSSA will be based on the currency of income so if an organisation is paying its employees in US dollars their contribution to NSSA will be in US dollars. If it is paying in ZWG, their contributions will be in ZWG.
The particular issue of civil servants emanated from the fact that with effect from January this year, the US$300 was converted to a salary and by that operation their contribution to NSSA, because it became salary, had to be contributed to US$.
So, as NSSA, we wrote to the Public Service Commission informing them of the need to align with the SI [statutory instrument] which was passed by the government which the Public Service ministry confirmed with another SI to make sure that those deductions are done properly in US$ as per the law.
The PSC opted to spread out the pension contribution deductions over a two-month period to minimize the financial impact on civil servants, as the deductions were applied retroactively from January 2024. Said Shava:
That is an issue between the Public Service Commission and employees in government. So, as NSSA, we really don’t have anything that we could do or not do except just to enforce the law by making sure that contributions from the public service are done in the correct currency as per the law.
This is from January 2024. This does not affect the private sector. I think their systems are working well. Those that are paying in ZWG are paying and those who are paying in ZWG are paying so we don’t have problems with the private sector. This is only for the public service.
In June, civil servants, such as teachers took home net salaries of about US$270 down from US$320 following the deductions.
Trade unions representing public service workers condemned the move by the Government to deduct their USD salaries for their pension contributions, describing it as “fraudulent”.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary-general Raymond Majongwe wrote to the PSC challenging the decision and said they were alarmed “by such callous unilateralism intended to further impoverish civil servants.”
NSSA has a long history of shortchanging pensioners amid allegations of corruption and poor management at the Authority.
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