By Petro Mkandawire

Blantyre, August 2, Mana: Concerned Retired Civil Servants (CRCS) have given government a 60-day ultimatum to pay their dues or face nonstop vigils.

CRCS Publicity Secretary, Ben Mitochi, said at a press briefing in Blantyre on Friday that they will name and shame officers that solicit bribes from the retirees in exchange for service.

The briefing was meant to raise concerns over long overdue issues on pension and other benefits.

Mitochi said retired civil servants are currently suffering saying “this is not how government should treat us after working for so long.”

He said most of retirees are languishing in towns and villages, lacking basic necessities of life due to lack of financial pension benefits which the Malawi government is still holding.

Mitochi described the situation as disheartening that few retired civil servants are being paid after paying bribes to some officials in various forms.

“As a result of government gross negligence, we cannot afford basic medical care considering that most of us are sick and old. We are falling to feed ourselves and our families and majority of our children have dropped out of schools due to nonpayment of school fees and cases of family disintegrated have also risen.

“We tried to contact the Budget Director, the Account General, Parliamentary Committee on Social Warfare and all departments responsible for pensions but have borne no fruits. As such, within two months we will involve international human rights organizations and the media to amplify our struggles and bad treatment we are getting,” he said.

He added that K193.17 billion which was allocated for pensioners in the 2024-2025 budget is not enough to be paid to retirees considering that pensioners are many totaling to 6,857 as majority of them are expected to receive the sum of K20 to K100 million each.

In a separate interview, one of the 2021 retirees, Daniel Machine, said government should clear out all outstanding gratuities since they are exacerbating the suffering of many retirees.

He added that the delay is leading to misunderstanding in most families as some family members believe that the retiree had already received pension benefits and used it at the expense of the family.

“I was supposed to receive my pension benefits within three months from the day I retired but now almost three years has gone which is contrary to Pension Act,” said Machine.

He added that investing and empowering pensioners can contribute to economic development of the country through business which can creation jobs.