The Sunday Mail
Ex-AfrAsia workers fight over US$6m pension kitty
Livingstone Marufu
FORMER AfrAsia Bank Zimbabwe workers are fretting over delays in paying out their pension fund – understood to be over US$6 million – six months after they faced the dreaded chop.
The workers are now railing against the fund’s trustees who they believe are abusing the kitty.
AfrAsia Bank Zimbabwe, formed after acquisition of Kingdom Bank Africa Limited, had its licence cancelled by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on February 24, 2015 because it was not financially sound.
The cancellation followed board resolutions by AfrAsia Zimbabwe Holdings and AfrAsia Bank Zimbabwe Limited to voluntarily surrender the banking licence.
After the bank’s closure, the trustees – the Pension Fund Trustees of AfrAsia Zimbabwe Holdings – were appointed liquidators to wind up the fund.
An external liquidator was deliberately avoided in order to prevent associated costs and ex-group CEO Mrs Lynn Mukonoweshuro was appointed the trustees principal officer/chairperson.
Other members were Mr Noel Mukutirwa (ex-group financial controller), Mrs Savious Mushosho (ex-finance director), Mr Patrick Chitehwe and Mr Kenneth Kaseke.
Minerva were appointed risk advisors.
It is understood that the asset managers were instructed to dispose all assets and invest on the money market on a short-term basis.
Although there was a commitment that the payments would begin by mid-June, the pensioners are becoming increasingly restless as the liquidators are non-committal.
Pensioners told The Sunday Mail Business last week that they suspected that the Fund was either misused or abused.
But some of the trustees indicated that this was a work in progress.
“It is alleged that only two-thirds of employee pension contributions were remitted to Minerva Risk Advisors and the one-third was never remitted and locked up in the bank yet employees’ contributions were being deducted from their salaries.
“Minerva promised to start making pay-outs mid-June and they have since started changing goal posts. It is now unsure whether pensioners will receive the correct amount due to them. The balances that we were told in February have been halved, raising suspicions as to what is really happening . . .
“The trustees have since stopped communicating with pensioners. Earlier, Mr Dale Mafunda, who is the fund administrator, was very confident that we were going to be paid my mid-year, but he is now reluctant to tell us what is happening.
“We thought that the payments would help us adjust to life after formal employment, but this has not been the case. Some of us are now saddled with huge school fees and utilities arrears that need to be paid.
“It only shows that the trustees are selfish and insensitive to our plight. It also now seems as if our risk advisors and trustees are no longer observing the mutual duty of trust and confidence,” said some of the pensioners, who refused to be identified for fear of victimisation.
Minerva GM Mr Timothi Manherudzo absolved the company of any wrongdoing, indicating that it was only engaged as secretaries of the trust.
“I am not the best person to discuss that issue with anyone as we are only secretaries of the Pension Fund led by Mrs Lynn Mukonoweshuro. We just follow the decisions passed by the pensioners’ board and it is not our duty to be part of the politics in their company,” said Mr Manherudzo.
Attempts to get a comment from Mrs Mukonoweshuro were fruitless last week as calls to her mobile phone were not connecting.
Enquiries sent through social media platform WhatsApp delivered but the line was subsequently blocked.
Mr Mukutirwa, who said he was the acting principal officer, said payments were an “ongoing process” before referring this paper to Mrs Mukonoweshuro.
Another trustee Mr Savious Mushosho said was not conversant with the matter as he left the company in December.
“They (pensioners) are not getting it correctly, I left the company in December and I don’t know anything about these developments. It is up to the chairperson Mrs Lynn Mukonoweshuro to tell you what is really happening,” explained Mr Mushosho.
Emailed questions to industry regulator the Insurance and Pensions Commission had not been responded to by the time of going of going to print despite repeated assurances that they would be attended to.
Industry expert Mr Martin Tarusenga, who is the GM of the Zimbabwe Pensions and Insurance Rights Trust, said there were inherent structural weaknesses in most pension funds as they had subverted boards, with company executives being forwarded as trustees, which often resulted in conflict of interest.
“The problem is that most workers are often ignorant of how their pension funds are run and most unions are either ignorant or lack the expertise to supervise such funds or even hold the trustees to account.
“In such a situation anything can happen because the pension fund is treated as the property of the employer. This is unlike other countries where workers fight to control the fund and also have a keen interest in how it is administered.
“It is only when workers retire that they start raising all these issues. A proactive, not reactive, approach is needed if this anomaly is to be corrected,” said Mr Tarusenga.
