Botswana delegation tours Nssa projects

THE Botswana delegation, which is in the country on a five-day business visit on Tuesday conducted a tour of the National Social Security Authority (Nssa) investment projects in Bulawayo to appreciate their model and impact on communities.

Led by Ms Veronica Moloko, the crew visited Ekusileni Medical Centre and Woodlands Town Houses in the company of their local counterparts.

Ekusileni Medical Centre was built by Nssa at a cost of US$4 million in 2000 and is the brainchild of the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo while the Woodlands Town Houses, along Old Esigodini Road, were initially built to accommodate the medical centre’s senior staff.

Nssa acting director of occupational safety and health, Dr Betty Nyereyegone took the delegation on a tour of the two facilities, which are a stone’s throw from each other.

The tour, according to the Nssa deputy director of marketing and public relations, Mr Tendai Mutseyekwa, was meant to give their Botswana counterparts an appreciation of how the authority sustains itself outside contributions from workers.

He said this was part of a bilateral agreement between the Government of Zimbabwe and Botswana on social security matters.

“The main difference between Botswana and us is that the Botswana schemes are wholly funded by the Government while in Zimbabwe both employers and employees contribute to Nssa”, said Mr Mutseyekwa.

He however, said the Nssa schemes could not be sustained through contributions by employers and employees hence the need to invest.

“We were showing them our two investments here in Bulawayo, Ekusileni Medical Centre and the 22 Woodlands Town Houses,” said Mr Mutseyekwa.

Speaking at the end of the tour, head of the Botswana delegation, Ms Moloko, said they were impressed with the level of investment and vision exhibited by Zimbabwe on workers’ social security matters.

Ms Veronica Moloko

She said they came to Zimbabwe to learn and gather information to help them start similar projects.

“We are so excited and appreciative of what Zimbabwe is doing through these investments by Nssa. This is why we partnered with Zimbabwe so that we can explore ways of starting similar investment projects back home,” said Ms Moloko.

She said social security programmes in Botswana are fully funded by the Government and workers only contribute to their pension schemes.

The high-level engagement programme seeks to consolidate the outcomes of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the field of labour and employment which was signed in 2020.

-chronicle