23 Jul 2013

Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs is currently carrying out a study on the feasibility and possibility of establishing a Board Based Occupational Pension in Botswana.

Answering a question in Parliament on July 22, labour and home affairs minister, Mr Edwin Batshu said the International Labour Organisation was providing technical assistance in terms of the Botswana Decent Work Country Programmed Priority II on Social Protection. The proposed pension scheme, he said, was aimed at extending coverage of pension to workers in the private sector who were currently paid severance benefit or gratuity in accordance with Section 27 of the Employment Act, Cap. 47:01.

Mr Batshu explained that it was not his immediate intension to review the rate of payment of severance benefit, “the severance benefit payment does not protect an employee upon retirement, since the funds received are in most cases utilised for immediate consumption purposes,” he said. “As a result of this consequence, in order to mitigate such a result, my focus is on extending pension coverage,” he added.

He also noted that the magnitude of this assignment was a big undertaking and as such, it would require a lot of resource mobilisation as well as extended and in-depth consultation within and outside Government.

Lobatse MP, Mr Nehemiah Modubule wanted to know when the minister intended to review the rate for payment of severance benefits given that it was last reviewed in 1992. ENDS