Mr Turville Kille has maintained constant contact with the Director of the Government Pensions Office in Harare, on behalf of the Public Service Pensioners' Association. He has reported that the Director is now seriously hoping to be able to pay a pension allowance in US$ to pensioners residing outside the country, whether they formally emigrated from Zimbabwe or just left the country. There will be no back pay because due to hyper- inflation in Zimbabwe the value of pensions not paid since 2003 has been wiped out. This information has been confirmed by the British Consul in Harare who discussed the scheme with the Director on 1 October. However, the Director has not yet obtained the necessary approval from the Government.
In order for the Pensions Office to commence paying this allowance (if duly authorised), each pensioner must submit three documents:
a completed Certificate of Life;
a bank instruction form (giving details of the bank account into which the allowance is to be paid);
a certified copy of the passport (the page with your photograph) or of your ID. Copies of the Certificate of Life and the bank instruction form can be obtained from the Flame Lily Foundation (FLF) office (address below). Send your request to the FLF by post, enclosing a stamped return-addressed envelope. The FLF will then send you the forms. Return the completed forms, with the certified copy of the passport page or ID, to the FLF for forwarding by secure means to the Government Pensions Office. When replying, please attach to the Certificate of Life
a note giving:
your date of entry into Southern Rhodesian Government service;
your date of retirement from that service;
your job title, rank or grade in which Department at time of your retirement.
If you know of any Zimbabwe Government pensioners who are not FLF members and so will not see this notice, please inform them of the situation.
The Pensions Office Director hopes to be able to start making payments by December and that they would be back dated to August.
Requests for the two forms and replies to: Flame Lily Foundation (ZPA)
PO Box 95474
Waterkloof
0145
Tel: 012 4602066
Fax: 086 6484794
Email: rasa@iafrica.com
Please note: The FLF cannot answer questions about pension entitlement,
or related queries.
OSPA is sending a similar message to this to OSPA members in their October
magazine, and Mr Frank Taylor will be sending a Newsletter to all members of
the Zimbabwe Service Pensioners' Group in Britain, with this same
information.
IMPORTANT NOTE
There are three major
points to note, which were not clear in the OSPA message. They are as
follows:
1. The ID number on the Certificate of Life is for a Zimbabwean ID, NOT a
South African ID or other country's ID. If the pensioner can't provide their
Zimbabwean ID number, their Pension number should suffice.
2. The certified ID should be a copy of the principal page of the
pensioner's passport, and NOT their South African ID book, or other form of
ID.
3. The bank account MUST be in the pensioner's own name. They may NOT
provide an account in the name of a relative or friend.
