Subject to ‘confirmation of completion of DDR’ and not to be indexed to TSU: Former Renamo guerrillas’ pensions – A Verdade

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Subject to ‘confirmation of completion of DDR’ and not to be indexed to TSU: Former Renamo guerrillas’ pensions – A Verdade

3:46 CAT | 18 Apr 2023

Image: A Verdade

With still no date for them to start being paid in sight, as they are subject to “confirmation of the conclusion of the disarmament and demobilisation process”, the pensions to be attributed to the approximately 5,000 former Renamo guerrillas will not be indexed to the new Single Salary Table in force in Mozambique.

Although the Government on 21 March approved the formulae for calculating the social reintegration bonus, the retirement pension, the disability pension, the survivor’s pension and the death subsidy of former Renamo party guerrillas who are being demobilised under the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process agreed by Filipe Nyusi and Ossufo Momade, there is still no date for the start of payment.

The newspaper @Verdade discovered, in Decree nº 12/2023 of April 4, that these social security benefits will only start to be paid “from the date of confirmation of the conclusion of the disarmament and demobilisation process, through a report prepared for the purpose and presented by the competent entity on its materialisation”.

It will be recalled that, at the end of last year, just one of the 16 Renamo bases was still not dismantled – the main one in Santujira, in Sofala Province – precisely because the payment of social security benefits was awaited.

@Verdade also established that these social security benefits will be calculated “based on the corresponding salaries of the categories or patents that were in force on the date of entry into force of Law nº 11/2019 of September 12”, the law that formalised the Agreement of Peace and National Reconciliation, signed on August 6, 2019 between Filipe Nyusi and Ossufo Momade, and therefore before the entry into force of the Single Salary Table (TSU), which doubled the minimum wage in the Mozambican Armed Defence Forces to 8,758 Meticais.

The social reintegration bonus and the retirement pension will be calculated by multiplying the Renamo guerrilla’s salary, corresponding to the military rank in force on the date of the 2019 Peace Agreement, by 10 years of service, divided by 35.

The disability pension will be calculated by multiplying the salary of the Renamo guerrilla, corresponding to the military rank in force on the date of the 2019 Peace Agreement, by the minimum wage in force in 2019, and also the percentage of disability contracted according to the Military Medical Board.

The survivor’s pension foreseen in case of death of the demobilised Renamo member entitled to the social reintegration bonus or pension, for his/her relatives, is 75% of the pension or bonus to which the deceased demobilised member was entitled.

In addition, upon the death of a former guerrilla, his/her family members (spouse and direct descendants or forebears) will be entitled to a subsidy corresponding to six months’ worth of the pension he or she earned or would earn on the date of death.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) has however warned, in its most recent Fiscal Risks Report, that: “Fiscal pressures on pensions have been growing significantly in recent years, with wide-ranging budgetary implications. In 2020, the additional fiscal pressures were 13.2% of the initially approved budget and, in 2021, this proportion increased to 26%.”

“The fiscal risk of pensions occurs when pension revenues are lower than the inherent expenses. This reality has demanded additional budget reinforcements to face the payment of social security expenses for civilian pensioners,” with the integration of demobilised soldiers into the system under the DDR seen by the MEF as one of the three most pressing factors in the short and medium term.

By Adérito Caldeira

Source: A Verdade