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The plight of pensioners in Tanzania: A case for study
2006-07-23 10:14:57
By Peter Msungu
You may not believe it, but it is very true that the majority of pensioners in this country are unhappy with their present status. They live from hand to mouth.
They are a disgraed lot in the society. If you had known a friend of yours working in one of the government departments few years back and is now a pensioner, you will be greatly taken aback to see him completely changed.
He now looks different and feeble. He is not that flamboyant faithful civil servant he used to be. He no longer takes his children to a school of his choice.
It will always be a government school, where fees are affordable.
He no longer eats well because the pension he receives is just too small.
The present minimum rate of pension is presently paged at 20.000/- a month, which is paid every six months.
Can it be said with sincerity that a retired civil servant can live on this amount. It is next to impossible and hence the agonies he is undergoing.
He sits down and asks himself questions. Why did I have to retire? ’’Yes, I have reached retirement age, so what? Can’t the authorities that be, allow me to continue working until death takes me, and many such, now irrelevant questions’’.
He is not alone, but one of many Tanzanian retirees, who daily pray to God to give them the little there is, so that they continue living, though the hard way.
Cries for more and better pension emoluments for retirees were recently echoed in Dodoma in the August House, where each Member of Parliament who stood to speak, proposed that the amount of minimum pension be raised from the present 20,000/- to the envisaged minimum salary for civil servants, which is to be effected at the end of this month.
It is common knowledge that many civil servants in our country, started building houses or buying pieces of land for agricultural development, after they had retired.
This meant that all their retirement benefits were quickly spent on the two items, and that was it.
This has been the trend for many government retiring officers due to the meagre pensions they receive.
Maulid Kijanja, is a retired officer, now languishing at King’ongo suburb, Kimara in Kinondoni district.
He told this reporter that on retiring he received 244,000/- as his whole retirement benefits for the 25 years he had worked for the forestry department.
This was in 1986, when salaries for most civil servants had not been adjusted.
Immediately he was out of service he moved out of his nephew’s house at Magomeni, where he never paid rent. He had two wives and eight children.
Upon his retirement his uncompromising nephew asked him to vacate the house and build his own, now that he had money. He quickly bought a piece of land and started building.
He had thought the 244,000/- he received as pension, was enough to erect a house.
It never got finished and he now lives in a semi primitive house with no window shutters.
His monthly pension is 20,938/-. He is now crying over split milk, and he is not alone in this cry, for there are many in the society we live in.
Civil servants in the low income brackets, have always been very unfortunate because their monthly emoluments are very low compared to workers in parastatal organisations.
And this tells why those serving in parastatals are said to be more prosperous, and at advanced levels of development economically and even socially.
A Simple research conducted by this paper in the year 2004, would reveal that most good and modern houses built at Kimara B, Kinondoni district, belonged to parastatal workers and or their associates.
You hardly come across a standard house belonging to an ordinary civil servant, unless he was transferred from the civil service to sone international organisation.
Another random survey carried out by a civil Engineer, who preferred anonymity, reveals that on the outskirts of Mbezi Beach, Kigamboni, Ukonga, Segerea, Kimara, Mbagala just to mention few, most of,.if not all high rise structures and most modern houses, belong to workers of parastatals, private organisations, agencies and what have you.
Should you come across a very good house, owned by an ordinary person, retired or current civil servant in these areas, it must have been acquired through a bank loan, for which the person pays through his nose.
It is time systems were put in place to allow for better and more retirement benefits to the ordinary civil servants, otherwise the present gap will persist widening, allowing for the haves to continue enjoying the benefits of hefty retirement pensions while the have nots, remain crying wolf.
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