Tucta welcomes move to combine pension funds

Trade Union' Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA), secretary general, Dr Yahaya  Msigwa  speaks at press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday. PHOTO| OMAR FUNGO

What you need to know:

  • This was said by Tucta secretary general Yahya Msigwa as he addressed reporters at Tucta’s offices yesterday.

The Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (Tucta) has welcomed the government plan of amending the Social Security Act so as to merge pension funds and to introduce unemployment benefits.

This was said by Tucta secretary general Yahya Msigwa as he addressed reporters at Tucta’s offices yesterday.

“I urge the government to speed up the process in a bid to assist improvident individuals save in order to cater for their livelihoods at old age,” he said.

This comes after, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Parliament, Labour, Employment, Youth and Disabled), Ms Jenista Mhagama, on Monday asked Parliament to allow reduction of the number of pension funds from the current seven to only two, whereby one will cater for the public sector and the other for private sector.

According to her, currently, there are seven pension schemes operating in Tanzania and all offering similar benefits. Some of them are the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and the Local Pensions Fund (Lapf).

Dr Msigwa also condemned last Thursday’s afternoon shooting of Chadema’s Chief Lawyer and President of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS), Mr Tundu Lissu.

He callened upon security agencies to speed up investigations and arrest people involved in the failed assassination attempt.

“I’m saddened by the shooting of Mr Lissu. Peace is very essential when it comes to people’s engagement in productivity, therefore, I challenge Police to arrest the criminals immediately,” he said.

Meanwhile, he also urged the government to compensate over 9,900 civil servants who were sacked after they were found using fake academic certificates.

“The termination of a contract does not mean that an employee loses all his basic rights. There are public service laws that must be considered when taking such measures,” he said.

He added, “The workers were not well consulted when the certificate verification process was conducted and it was not carried out in a transparency manner,” he said.

For his part, Tucta assistant secretary general Jones Majura stated, “The ongoing attacks against national leaders and killings in Coast Region affect the country’s investment climate. The incidents will scare away potential investors.”