Business Reporter
THE ZB Financial Holdings (ZBFH) Group Pensioners Association is allegedly embroiled in a nasty fight with the he ZBFH Group Pension Fund over meager monthly payouts as little as US$1 to US$2 per month.
A letter dated December 6, 2024, seen by The Humanitarian Post laid bare the slave like conditions being set by the ZBFH group.
The pensioners petitioned the fund’s chairperson, Stanley Chikwati and took him to task over the dire situation.
“It is unheard of how a bank-run pension fund can anchor the estimated US$30 to US$50 bread index by paying its pensioners the equivalent of US$1 per month after the pensioner has worked for the bank for almost their entire working life?” the aggrieved pensioners said.
Some of the affected pensioners who spoke to our publication on condition of anonymity confirmed that the fund was paying paltry payouts.
“ZBFH Group Pension Fund is a proper institutional scam. They get real money contributions from employees and when they retire, they are given local currency, which is equivalent to less than US$5, talking for myself,” one pensioner said on condition of anonymity.
“I used to contribute over US$500 per month and now that’s what I get after over 25 years of service. They have not responded to any of our requests and queries. Our efforts to go to Ipec (Insurance and Pensions Commission) have also not yielded any response.”
ZBFH manages the pension fund internally, other organisations entrust pensions administration to mutual funds, it is just a bad situation.
The pensioners argue that even Nssa (National Social Security Authority), which is not a proper pension fund but just a social security safety net embroiled in much deeper problems is managing to pay much better than ZBFH.
The association also criticised the fund’s handling of its inaugural annual general meeting (AGM) held on December 12, accusing it of failing to follow best practices.
Pensioners were reportedly notified of the AGM via text message only 12 days before the event, far below the recommended 21-to-30-day notice period.
“Is it a question of the pension fund no longer affording the advertising cost of an AGM notice or where exactly did things go wrong? We trust this is not a way of tactfully excluding the meaningful participation of our members at the AGM!” the demanded ahead of the meeting.
“If the pension fund cannot afford basic advertising costs of a simple advert, how is the poor pensioner in receipt of a mere US$2 monthly pension expected to afford the data for such an envisaged long virtual proposed meeting providing of course that there is reliable network connectivity? What is the reason for this rushed AGM? Please explain for our appreciation.”
It further stated: “To us, there seems to be a hidden agenda if the genuine and legitimate concerns of key stakeholders like pensioners are ignored. Please refresh yourselves with the relevant provisions of the constitution, which you might have overlooked as custodians of this critical document.
“We stand to be corrected just in case we misinterpreted the relevant provisions stating that legitimate concerns of stakeholders should not be ignored or disregarded.”
The association alleged that the fund’s records were being kept hidden under the pretext of privacy and confidentiality, potentially concealing poor governance practices.
“Our representatives are asked to sign documents and representation documents at short notice. It’s a real scam,” another pensioner said.
The AGM revealed discriminatory practices within the membership, comprising retirees and active pensioners.
The active pensioners received benefits, such as housing loans to purchase homes and earn rental income upon retirement, at the expense of the retirees.
Retirees lamented the lack of representation, stating the current representative was ineffective as they implicitly endorsed all board decisions, which were passed unanimously.
The retirees felt neglected and underserved by the board of trustees.
Unlike active members, they had no parallel programmes to alleviate their low pension payments, while generous housing loan schemes were introduced for serving members.
“Meanwhile all our grievances were submitted in detail at the AGM and the chairman undertook to reply to each one shortly after looking into them.” Tone pensioner said.
They said the fund was characterised by high percentage figures and declarations of the fund as a going concern yet it pays its pensioners an average of US$2 per month against an estimated Insurance and Pensions Commission bread index of above US$30.
“What, therefore, is the criterion used by these ‘over-educated’ young men to determine and distinguish a going concern from a dead horse? We said it before and we repeat 800% growth of nothing against 800% depreciation is nothing!” part of the AGM takeaways read.
“These guys are unbelievably so naive and misguided that they want to prove that they are still sane when they waste valuable time and try to eloquently present RTGS financial statements of the fund as at December 31, 2023 on December 12, 2024 without a thought to their relevance or relate such obsolete figures to current values, at least in USD.
“Common sense tells me that since programmes like excel are easily available; they could have captured and given us an up-to-date version of these figures in USD terms. Surely, if reasonable pensioners are not shocked by this development, then let me say you are not shocked and so will never be shocked by anything shocking.”
Contacted for comment, ZBFH spokesperson Emila Mabika neither acknowledged nor declined to validate the allegations after failing to avail a comment despite a one month’s long wait.
