By Takudzwa Tondoya
ZISCO Steel pensioners are owed a staggering US$38.7 million in compensation, according to a report tabled in Parliament by the Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion chairperson, Energy Mutodi.
The report follows a petition submitted by the pensioners in March 2024, highlighting their continued plight stemming from years of unpaid and devalued pensions.
Presenting the committee’s findings in Parliament on Tuesday, Mutodi said the Ministry of Finance must move swiftly to honour its obligations and implement Statutory Instrument 162 of 2023 by December 2025.
“The Committee, therefore, recommends that the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion and IPEC should actualise the implementation of Statutory Instrument 162 of 2023 by December 2025,” Mutodi said.
He explained that although the government had released ZWL39.2 million to the pensioners when the exchange rate was 1:90, the payment did not reflect the true value owed.
Using current exchange rates, the Ministry still owes US$38.7 million.
“This amount should be paid to the pensioners at the prevailing rate by 31 March 2025,” Mutodi said.
The committee also urged lawmakers and the Treasury to amend the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Debt Assumption) Act of 2018 in line with findings of the 2018 Actuarial Valuation Report.
The amendments, according to the committee, must be concluded by March next year to ensure full recognition of pension obligations.
Further, the committee called for immediate implementation of the Justice Smith Report. The report, which investigated pension losses during key periods of economic turmoil—particularly the 2008 hyperinflation crisis and the 2019 currency reforms—has remained largely unimplemented despite its significance.
“ZISCO Steel pensioners, and if not all pensioners in the various sectors of the economy, have suffered prejudice in the form of loss of value upon retirement. This loss of value has mainly been attributed to the currency reforms undertaken in 2009 and 2019 as one of the measures to stabilise the economy,” Mutodi said
The committee took aim at the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC), Zimbabwe’s pensions regulator, accusing it of oversight failures and calling for the strengthening of its regulatory role.
“IPEC, as a regulator, should act against all its omissions and commissions as well as strengthen the commission as a regulator by 31 March 2025,” Mutodi said
