The Standard 22 June 2014

8 The Standard June 22 to 28 2014
Local News
NRZ pensioners, widows
If they could raise our pensions to at least
US$100, it would go a long way in alleviating
our poverty. We sometimes go without eating
meals due to lack of money
By VENERANDA LANGA
Marefura Namupita —
probably in his late
80s or early 90s sits
forlornly outside his
red brick four-roomed house at
Rugare Township warming himself
in the sun.
He looks very deep in thought,
probably thinking about where
his next meal would come from
as a National Railways of Zimbabwe
pensioner who earns a meagre
US$30 per month for his upkeep.
His wife, Kerina looks two decades
younger than him as she
sits next to her husband with her
left foot plastered. She says she
slipped and fell, breaking her leg
in the process.
Kerina still has a very good
memory of the good times during
the 1960s to early 1980s when NRZ
was one of the best employers in
the country and even built houses
for its employees in different suburbs
like Sizinda, Tshabalala and
Newton West in Bulawayo and
Rugare in Harare.
The husband cannot remember
exactly when he was born.
However, he still remembers
that it was in 1954 that he joined
the trek from Malawi (then Nyasaland)
to Zimbabwe in search of
greener pastures and he got a job
as a general hand at NRZ.
“I started off in 1954 as a general
hand but was later promoted
to ticket checker,” recounted Namupita
speaking in Shona with a
Chewa accent.
NRZ shells left to rust . . . just as the equipment is now obsolete, pensioners feel they have been neglected
Marefura and Kerina Namupita
“Then, I used to earn a salary
of 15 pounds per month, but I remember
it was a lot of money as
I could afford to feed and clothe
my family and take my kids to
school,” he said.
Namupita said he retired in
1992 when the Zimbabwean dollar
was still the local currency.
He does not remember how much
he was given as a lump sum, but
his wife could still remember.
“The total pension package was
Z$1 000. We thought it was a lot
of money then, but it was all gobbled
up by expenses we incurred
when we enrolled our first born
daughter for a Secretarial course.
The whole idea was that if we educated
our children, they would
soon be helping us during our retirement
age. However, after paying
for the course and building a
two-roomed cottage, the pension
was all gone,” she said.
According to the couple, life as
pensioners is a living hell as the
US$30 monthly pension they receive
is not enough to pay for water,
electricity as well as buy food
for the other children who are unemployed.
“Our other four children are
not working and our monthly
electricity consumption is
worth US$50 while US$25 is needed
for water. Right now we have
a US$200 water bill and live in
fear that any day the city council
will cut our water supplies. Wellwishers
are the ones who assist
us, as well as our daughter who
now works as a teacher. However,
she is married and has other responsibilities,”
explained Kerina.
She said things were better
when she used to collect US$100
from renting out the extra rooms
they had built. However, in 2005
when government ordered Operation
Murambatsvina, their
source of income — the two
rooms — were destroyed leaving
them with nothing to live on.
“I sometimes sell second-hand
clothes to supplement the monthly
US$30 pension. Now, I cannot
do that because of the fracture on
my foot. We can no longer access
medical care as Railmed is no
longer treating pensioners and
we cannot access medicines. We
do not pay service fees at government
hospitals but we have to buy
prescribed drugs. I was asked to
pay US$25 for X-rays when I hurt
my foot; how can pensioners afford
that,” Kerina said.
A drive around the whole township
of Rugare was proof enough
that people were suffering. Although
there were a few houses
that had been extended and were
fenced or walled, most people live
in squalor.
A local pastor from the Apostolic
Church of Pentecost, Henry
Zihove said Rugare was “a forgotten
community” and that was
why it was rare to hear people
speaking about it in Harare.
The roads showed that they
were last resurfaced probably
during the 60s. Youths old
enough to go to work mill in the
streets doing nothing. Burst sewers
are the order of the day, toilets
are pit latrines per house. On
average, 13 people use one latrine.
“Water is not clean and many
youths are unemployed because