Rosa Chibindi a representative of the pensioners told journalists in an interview Harare city council has not remitted payouts since August.
“Harare city council has failed to remit our payouts for the past four months, we get US$145 but we have received nothing for four whole months what are we supposed to be eating we have grandchildren some of whom are HIV positive they are in danger of defaulting.
“As I speak now some have defaulted because we have no other sources of income besides the pension and we have the aged who do not have anyone to look after them how are they supposed to survive,” Chimbindi asked.
She said they had approached the City fathers who had told them they had remitted two months worth of pensions to individual banks but after checking with the said banks they drew blanks.
“The city of Harare has been lying to us telling our members they had remitted fund to their accounts when in-fact it was a ploy to just get rid of us.
“The world must know how council is treating the aged some of whom are now leaving in far off rural areas where they are expected to travel to the city to collect their pensions only to realize it was a waste of money, we have now incurred debts,” said Chimbindi.
Council Spokesperson Leslie Gwindi denied the city had failed in its obligations to the aged.
“As far as I know we have never failed to honour our obligations to our former workers who served the city so well and we have no intention of failing now.
“I will need to check if the city Treasurer’s department is behind in its remittances to the Local Authorities Pension Fund (LAPF) but I am quite certain we are on that front,” said Gwindi.
Post published in: News