Government pushes for Morgan Tsvangirai’s pension 

Source: Government pushes for Morgan Tsvangirai’s pension | The Financial Gazette February 15, 2018

By Cyril Zenda

GOVERNMENT is pushing through a Bill to amend the law to formalise payment of a gratuity to former Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Revised amendments, however, drop the proposed payment of allowances for spouses of former presidents and former vice presidents. Among the amendments that have been made to the Finance Bill are clauses for the payment of a gratuity to Tsvangirai and legislators that serve for one term only. Legislators that serve for more than one term are entitled to a government pension.

“The existing amendment to the Parliamentary Pensions Act is expanded to authorise the payment of a gratuity to ‘a person who served as Prime Minister’, i.e., Mr Tsvangirai,” noted Veritas, a legal and legislative watchdog, in its commentary on the amendment to the Bill related to gratuity for the former Prime Minister.

On the removal of provision for handsome allowance for spouses of President and Vice-President, it noted: “The original Bill envisaged the spouse of a President or Vice-President being entitled to an allowance calculated at 50 percent of the salary and allowances of the President or Vice-President. This has now been expunged from the Bill.”

If passed by Parliament in the current form, this effectively means that former first lady, Grace Mugabe and Laurinda Mphoko, wives of former president Robert Mugabe and former vice president Phelekezela Mphoko respectively, will not get anything from Treasury.

Under Section 102 of the Constitution, a former president or a former vice president is entitled to a pension equivalent to the salary and allowances of a sitting president or vice president. There is no provision for pension for their spouses.