Malawians who worked in the mines under Theba and Wenela in South Africa will have to persevere longer before they receive their pension money as it is still being processed.
The ex-miners have been waiting for their money for over 25 years since they left South Africa in the late 1980s and early 90s.
But in all the years of waiting, the miners have been told that the money is being processed until now when they have been pressing harder for the release of their money.
According to the chairperson of one of the groups of the ex-miners “Chisomo group” John Mizati, they feel deceived after a long time of waiting and all they want is a direct address by the Minister of Labour.
Mizati also claim that he went to South African chamber of mines in April to ask for the money where he was told that it was sent to Malawi Government.
“We have been hearing a lot about our money, they first told us to register our names because the money is coming but to no avail. For a long time government has been registering our names and we are tired of it, they are just telling us that our money is being processed but nothing is materialising so we want the Labour Minister to address us, we want to know where our money is and we don’t want another cashgate on our money,” said Mizati.
But Secretary for Labour Patrick Kabambe said the ex-miners should still wait as the pension money is still being processed and will be sent directly into their bank accounts.
He said all this while; government has been working on registering the ex-miners and verifying their names with those they have in ministries database to be sent to South Africa together with individual bank accounts.
“We have made a lot of progress, the requirement is that those who have been successful will have to open the bank accounts and we have sent some of the names to South Africa together with the accounts and very soon the South Africans will be transferring the money to their accounts, the ministry is not handling the money except taking their forms to South Africa,” said Kabambe.
According to Kabambe about 9,000 plus people have been successful and will be receiving the money while the registration process is still underway for some people who are yet to be identified.
Kabambe also denied claims that the money had been sent home to the shared among the beneficiaries by the Malawi officials.
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