LAMENTATIONS OF A NAPSA CONTRIBUTOR….A NIGHTMARE

LAMENTATIONS OF A NAPSA CONTRIBUTOR….A NIGHTMARE

The Editor-in Chief/Administrator
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord.
Name is Modest Luchembe Kamenga

I have an issue with NAPSA in terms of calculations on my pension money.

I started working in August 1967.
In January 1982 I got an outside offer to go and work in Swaziland as an expatriate. By the end of January 1982 my total contributions to ZNPF amounted to K1,485.80 as shown as principal contributions on proof marked Copy 1 .

Upon relocating back to Zambia in 2015, the following year I visited NAPSA here in Livingstone and to my shock. I was told that my final payment amounted to K698.45. I could not believe that in this world there is a retirement fund that shrinks. In September 2019 I visited the NAPSA office to enquire about my compensation, the manager refused to see me instead he told me to go and write a letter and put all my facts. Which I did on September 2 2019. The treatment I got from there affected me so much that kept my BP on highside despite the medications I was taking. Hence on November 10 2019 I was attacked by a stroke and active left side was completely paralyzed. With the outbreak of pandemic the rehabilitation centre was shut down here in Livingstone. I had to rely on my personal exercise with the assistance of my Swazi wife.

On 13th March, 2023 my wife drove me to NAPSA, they told me that my first letter was misplaced and I should write another letter Copy 3 (a+b) which I did. I was taken to the manager’s office and we had a serious meeting. I was not convinced of his explanation that NAPSA was just kind in paying old members of ZNPF when it had taken all assets of ZNPF through cheating. They the assets, liquidated them and sold to themselves at a give away bid. At the end of the meeting the manager promised to submit my letter to the head office and wait for the reply which has never been sent back to me up this day.

In November 2023 I went to Lusaka at NAPSA offices and no senior manager wanted to meet me despite explaining that the process had gone over the branch level.

Then someone told me to go to the Ministry of Labor. There I was told that the Ministry of Finance who introduced the rebasing should be able to explain as to why the calculations plus rebasing have shrunk the the contributions.

At the finance after listening to my submission they told me that it not the rebasing which reduced the value of contributions but they own formula.

I was referred to a certain tribunal, only to find that they are only dealing with Forex issues. Hence I was directed to the Office of the Public Protector. Because it was my first time to know that we have such an office also in Zambia. In South Africa it’s a well known office because of high profile cases it has been handling. We spent close to 2 hours with the taxi driver who was taking me around in order to locate the place. We found some workers chatting outside sitting at pillar of the bridge who took us inside. No one was doing anything. The lady introduced us to the receptionist who a senior by the name Mr. Muntombe. He interviewed me after that he took me to another office and helped me to write a statement. After I had finished the driver came to help me to go to the car. By then it became very difficult for me to walk despite having a clutch. I was promised to make a follow up after two weeks.

Two weeks later I phoned Mr Muntombe who told me that he was in Mansa opening another branch but directed me to Choma Branch Manager. I phone the Choma office and made an appointment to go see her over my issue. We arranged and fixed the date as the following Monday. On that Monday I boarded the 06:00 hours from Livingstone to Choma and arrived in time. Only to find the lady was still in Lusaka. I wondered why she couldn’t have phoned and postpone the meeting.

Ever since I have been phoning them that they got irritated and sent me the letter marked Copy 4

It’s my humble appeal to you Mr President that you find time to bring justice to my situation.

Thanking you Sir in advance

Modest Luchembe Kamenga