Old Age Poverty

Abstract

Despite having over 500 000 pensioners, Zimbabwe is far from guaranteeing its elderly an effective social security system. The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) – is embroiled in numerous cases of corruption. Similar criticisms have also been levelled against personal pension schemes with the living potential of pensioners in Zimbabwe (who receive in some cases less than US$1 monthly), continuing to deteriorate. In contributing new data to the understudied phenomenon of the old age pensions industry in Zimbabwe, this study interviewed a purposively drawn sample of bureaucrats from NSSA and pensioners in three provinces. Profound challenges in decommodification – attributes of a zero accountability status quo and a tokenistic, non-transformative old age social security regime were noted with numerous recommendations being proffered. Old age pension administrators failure to define and maintain measurable social indicators was argued in the study as partly contributing to their inability to ensure compliance to their primary mandate of providing a social security net for pension contributors.