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The National Social Security Authority was established in terms of Chapter 17: 04 of the NSSA Act (1989).
According to NSSA’s own website, “The provision of social security can be defined as instituting public policy measures intended to protect an individual in life situations or conditions in which his/her livelihood and well-being may be threatened, such as those engendered by sickness, workplace injuries, unemployment, invalidity, old age, retirement and death.

“It is based on the principle of social solidarity and pooling of resources and risks, involving drawing of savings from periods of employment, earnings and good health to provide for periods of unemployment, old age, invalidity and death”

The authority’s vision is “to be a world class provider of social security”.

To this end, the mammoth entity invests employee and employer contributions in various economic sectors so that it can grow and cash an asset base that will allow it to be a world-class provider of social security.

In its 2011 annual report, signed off by Comptroller and Auditor-General Ms Mildred Chiri, NSSA said: “Investments income went up 21 percent from US$19,7 million in 2010 to US$23,2 million in 2011.”

The authority also noted that total assets grew by 30 percent from US$456 million in 2010 to US$592 million in 2011.

It sure does look like a rosy picture and NSSA director of investments Mr Shadreck Vera and his team are doing a mighty fine job for pensioners and their dependants.

So good are things, that NSSA’s top eight managers are currently servicing loans from the authority of around US$1,7 million at very concessionary interest rates. Total staff loans are at about US$23 million.

It’s good that NSSA sees it fit to invest in its workforce, ensuring that they all have houses of their own and do not have to use public transport.

This is what every company would want to do for its staff, but it’s just not possible in the current economic environment.

And while all those good things are happening at NSSA, as it said itself earlier this year, has “established a minimum retirement pension of US$60 per month. The minimum survivor’s pension and invalidity pension is US$30.”

We wonder what all those people who are waiting for US$60 and US$30 every month think when they read that NSSA’s bigwigs are getting housing loans of above US$100 000 and paying them off at interest rates lower than those prevailing on the market.

Surely, they must be feeling that they deserve a better deal from the pension scheme managers who are rewarding themselves with houses and cars while they scrape a living together under the toughest of circumstances.

They certainly would be forgiven for thinking that there is something seriously wrong with a system that pays them non-living returns while pension fund executives live off the fat of the land.

NSSA will tell us that they must reward their hardworking employees, which is all fair and fine. But they must also create a system that pays out a pension that makes people’s lives easier after they have retired or for their surviving family after they have died.

The authority has said: “The areas in which NSSA invests often come under public scrutiny, particularly where investments do not do as well as anticipated.

“Investments that have done well draw less public attention than those that do not. The primary purpose of NSSA’s investments is to grow pension funds.”

And that is how it is. It is NSSA’s job to make good investments, and the public’s right to fume when investments go sour and they are paid US$30 monthly while staff get loans running into millions of dollars.

Needless to say, it is way beyond time that NSSA upped its game and lived up to its vision of being “a world-class provider of social security”.