New pension scheme irks civil servants

Concerned Civil Servants have announced plans to hold peaceful demonstrations in the country’s four cities on November 3 2026 to express dissatisfaction with the new pension scheme.

The group’s secretary general Justin Mkwale confirmed in an interview on Monday that they sent letters of notification to the chief executive officers in all four cities.

In the letter which The Nation has seen, the Concerned Civil Servants have called on the government to revert to the defined-benefit pension scheme.

Reads the letter in part: “We are concerned that this [current scheme] will leave retirees receiving lower and less predictable benefits than under the old pension system, in which pension payments could benefit from salary adjustments and government-approved increments.”

Under the contributory scheme, a retiree receives half of their retirement benefits upon retirement and gets monthly annuities from the insurer whereas in the defined-benefit scheme, a retiree receives half of their pension benefits and a monthly sum equivalent to their last salary.

While admitting that the civil servants’ concerns were genuine, Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) has distanced itself from the proposed demonstrations.

CSTU president Lameck Magawa said in a telephone interview that the union intends to formally write relevant authorities to request a meeting on the subject.

He also wondered why the group petitioned the Speaker of the National Assembly and want to demonstrate before receiving a response.

Department of Human Resources Management and Development spokesperson Ken Mtonga said in a written response yesterday that the department is not aware of “anything to that effect”.

In August, the CSTU indicated that the contributory scheme was introduced in 2017.

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