Minister Mussa fights for Malawi ex-miners benefits with South Africa govt

Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development has said he went to South Africa recently to push for the benefits of Malawian ex miners who worked in the mineral rich country.

Speaking in parliament on Thursday, Mussa said he personally visited the office of the 1970 Provident Fund in South Africa on April 22, 2016 to appreciate the process involved in the releasing of the benefits.

“…and press on the administrators to speed up the process to pay the owed benefits to deserving beneficiaries who have waited for a very long time,” he said.

He said there are three categories of forms that are used to claim money from the Provident Fund Administrators, saying the first form to be filled is the preliminary form, saying all ex-miners are required to fill this particular form.

Upon completion, he told the House, the forms are sent to South Africa where they are screened against the names of the beneficiaries that are already in the database maintained by the Provident Fund Administrators.

He said once the details of an applicant match those in the database, such a person qualifies for benefits, saying after this process, the qualifying ex-miner or the dependant of a deceased ex-miner is further required to fill the form for claiming transfer of funds known as Alexander Forbes forms.

“I am pleased to inform this august House that so far, we have sent a total of 48, 629 forms, which have been screened by the mines 1970 Unclaimed Benefits Preservation Provident Fund,” he said.

Mussa said out of these, 17, 807 have qualified to receive the benefits and to date 8, 641 beneficiaries have completed the Alexander Forbes forms, saying these have since been submitted to the Provident Fund authorities in South Africa for processing of payments.

He said Alexander Forbes is a company appointed by the Reserve Bank of South Africa to act as the administrators for the remittances of all the ex-miners benefits, not only for Malawi but the whole Sadc region.

“While we anticipate a rise in the number of beneficiaries, as I have said before, not all the ex-miners are eligible to receive benefits for the reason that some of them were not members of Provident Fund since membership was on voluntary basis,” he said.

Regarding payments, Mussa said authorities in South Africa have almost completed scrutinizing the Alexander Forbes forms that were submitted and will soon start receiving their benefits.

He said all the money will be paid direct into the ex-miners bank accounts or their next of kin bank accounts through electronic payment system.

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