The Zimbabwean government has announced it will resume remitting pension funds to Malawian former mine workers.
Remittance of the funds was stopped because of lack of records and economic problems in Zimbabwe.
But speaking in the Malawi capital, Lilongwe, Zimbabwean ambassador to Malawi, Thandiwe Dumbutchena, said all was set for the resumption of the remittance of the funds.
“It pleases me to declare the resumption of the fund,” she said.
Dumbutchena said millions of Malawians contributed to the economic growth of Zimbabwe in various ways, mostly in mining.
“In recognition for the industriousness of Malawians and the role Malawians played in the economic growth of Zimbabwe we are committed to paying their pension,” she said.
The Zimbabwean Mining Industries Pension Fund Public Relations Officer, Thumani Ndlovu, said his team visited 11 districts in Malawi to identify former mine workers.
“It becomes a challenge to identify beneficiaries because Malawi does not have a national identity system,” he said.
Ndlovu said at least 500 beneficiaries had been identified and verified but records of some 200 others could not be verified because the beneficiaries had since died but there were no records.
John Mawango, Workers Compensation Commissioner in the Malawi Ministry of Labour, said his office advises relatives of deceased former workers to obtain death certificates as proof for easy processing of pensions.
At some point there were over three million Malawians in Zimbabwe. This was so because during the federation of Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (Malawi), Malawi was used as a source of labour for mines and farms in the two countries.
