Issued by: The Ministry of Labour
20 October 1997
South Africa's Minister of Labour, Mr Tito Mboweni, and the Minister of Labour of Mozambique, Mr Guilherme Mavila, today sealed an agreement in Pretoria that pension and compensation payments due to Mozambican mineworkers or their families be paid directly in Mozambique.
There are about 60 000 Mozambican miners working in South Africa. They or their families are eligible for payments in terms of the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1941, the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act of 1993, accidental injury or death resulting from work and certain scheduled occupational diseases.
Before, payments were made through the Johannesburg office of the Delegate of Labour of Mozambique, sent to the Mozambican Department of Labour in Maputo and then distributed through labour offices in Mozambique. This method of payment made it difficult for Rand Mutual Assurance Company Limited, which administers the Payments, to properly provide follow-up services to seriously disabled workers and dependents of workers who had died.
The new method of payment was made possible through an addendum to the 1964 Labour Agreement between South Africa and Mozambique which regulated labour and related financial issues between the two countries and particularly in the mining industry.
Under the new method of payment, the Mozambican National Institute of Social Security makes the payments every month on behalf of Rand Mutual Assurance. Rand Mutual Assurance transfers the money to the Banco Commercial de Mocambique and cheques are paid to beneficiaries in Mozambican currency (Meticais).