It is 7:30am at the seat of the Malawi Government, Capital Hill in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe and a young woman from Mwanza, Hendrina Kamenya, has already had enough.
For three years since the death of her father, who was working for the Malawi Prison Service, she has struggled to get his death benefits.
Fed up with being tossed around from one office to the other, Kamenya decides to stage a one-woman demonstration at the gate of Capital Hill.
Standing in the middle of the entrance, the 23-year-old Kamenya carries a placard written ‘Accountant General you can do better. Three years is too much’.
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The three-year wait for the death benefits has seen Hendrina being withdrawn from the Malawi University of Business and Applied Science (Mubas).
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The case of Hendrina is just an example of thousands of Malawians who are struggling to get pension, gratuities, and death benefits from the government.
Even retired soldiers and widows are not spared from the torture.
On November 14 last year, about 150 ex- Malawi Defence Force (MDF) soldiers and widows planned to hold vigils at Capital Hill to force the government to pay them retirement and death gratuity.
According to spokesperson for the group, Bester Banda, some retirees had gone as long as 28 months without getting their retirement packages.
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Banda said the government owed the group over K7.5 billion in gratuity.
“We have had a couple of meetings and the last one with Secretary to Treasury (ST) on 11th July 2023 which to us was of the highest order. As per our discussions with the ST, he assured us that payments for gratuity would be made in August and September 2023 respectively covering those in a bracket of nine months up to two years and over.
“Be informed that whatever we agreed with relevant stakeholders has not been fulfilled,” the retired soldiers and widows said in a letter to Lilongwe District Commissioner Lawford Palani.
On November 28, 2023, a group of retired civil servants petitioned Parliament over delays by the government to pay them their pension funds.
In the petition, the retired civil servants have since demanded recalculations of their pensions to compensate for the effects of the devaluation in recent years.
The former civil servants argued that they cannot live a decent life and are unable to send children to school.
“We are also failing to pay rent while others whose houses were destroyed by the recent cyclone are unable to repair or rebuild them and therefore are living in untold misery.
“For other civil servants who were hoping to build houses with their hard-earned pension may not be able to accomplish the same because of the rise in cost of building materials,” reads the petition.
Machinga North East lawmaker Ajilu Kalitendere said the delays in paying the gratuities is causing retirees to suffer in silence as they are failing to take care of their families.
According to Kalitendere this is happening despite Parliament passing allocations for pensions and gratuities every year.
In a letter dated January 5, 2024, to Secretary to President and Cabinet, Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) National Coordinator Kelvin Chirwa demanded a systemic audit of institutional and administrative frameworks of the handling of pensions and deceased estates by the Accountant General’s Office.
According to Chirwa, HRDC is mindful of the many instances that people like Kamenya have had to go through for them to access money from pension and deceased estates through the office of the Accountant General.
“This audit should recommend strategies in addressing the backload of payments. The recommendations should also contribute to the improvement of the system as a whole, ensuring that beneficiaries receive the support they need in a timely and efficient manner,” Chirwa said.
Addressing concerns on pension delays in Parliament, President Lazarus Chakwera acknowledged that government has been providing for pension and gratuity allocation in the budget every year but that the Ministry of Finance provides the estimates based on the available data of civil servants who are expected to retire in a given fiscal year after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60 years.
According to Chakwera, there has been an increase of civil servants retiring on voluntary basis, adding that the numbers have reached unprecedented levels to the point that they are affecting the planned allocation of pension and gratuity in the budget in a given fiscal year.
The Malawi leader said the government has been committed to reducing the waiting period through consistent and regular funding to the pension and gratuity budget line.
“You may recall that recently in the 2023-24 mid-year budget review the House approved additional allocation for pension and gratuity from K133.2 billion to K182 billion, representing 37 percent increase, and this extra allocation will enable government to clear part of this backlog up to April 2022 by the close of this current financial year in March 2024.
“I am quite aware of the plight of the retired civil servants and my government is doing everything possible to ease off this suffering once and for all. In that regard I have instructed the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs to dedicate their efforts and finalise working on a facility that will assist the government to clear the backlog and to be current in the 2024-25 financial year,” Chakwera said.
But as authorities are searching for a lasting solution to the delays in paying the pensions and death gratuities, the money keeps losing value due to devaluation of the local currency as well as inflation.
At least Kamenya was lucky to be assisted with speed. Now the million-dollar question is, should all the pensioners and widows camp Capital Hill for them to be paid on time?
Retirement is supposed to be time to rest and utilising the knowledge accumulated over the years of working through opening up new enterprises.
It is not time for toiling to get paid retirement benefits.
