The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Correspondent
A HONDE VALLEY pensioner with a disability last week received a wheelchair accessible house, ablution facilities and a solar powered borehole from the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) through its revamped Project Dzimba initiative.
The donation brought relief to Mr Nhamo San’anza (44) of San’anza Village under Chief Mutasa who was injured 18 years ago while working at a tea estate in Honde Valley.
The initiative seeks to provide homes suitable for paraplegic and quadriplegic pensioners under the Accident Prevention and Workers Compensation Scheme (APWCS).
It was launched in 2018 and first implemented in 2020.
The first beneficiaries only received new homes and toilets.
According to NSSA Deputy Director Marketing and Communication, Mr Tendai Mutseyekwa, Mr San’anza is the first recipient of a package that includes a borehole.
“We realised that when employees who are injured at work are taken back home upon recovery, the homes will no longer be suitable and easily accessible to them. Most of them will be using wheelchairs.
“As an Authority, we made a decision to assist, particularly those from rural areas, by constructing suitable homesteads for them as part of our corporate social responsibility programme,” said Mr Mutseyekwa.
The homesteads comprise a one-bedroom apartment with a lounge, a suitable toilet and a kitchen.
The homesteads also have ramps around them to ensure that pensioners will be able to maneuver their wheelchairs without much hindrance.
Mr Mutseyekwa said NSSA recently extended the project to urban areas.
To date, 105 grossly injured pensioners have benefitted from the scheme.
The provision of modern decent housing to grossly injured workers is part of the broader basic human rights initiatives identified by the United Nations Human Rights Council and ratified by many other African countries, Zimbabwe included.
In a speech read on his behalf by NSSA’s Chief Social Security Officer, Mrs Tambudzai Jongwe during the official handover of the solarised borehole, NSSA General Manager, Mr Arthur Manase said the Authority will continue working with Government through the provision of social security.
He said the initiative will go a long way in assisting grossly injured workers.
“Such a strategic approach in the management of benefits and resettlement of grossly injured workers guarantees the corporate entity’s resettlement viability. Thus, the provision of basic modern homes to the grossly injured workers is an important corporate developmental responsibility in the modern management of social security,” he said.
In an interview, Mr San’anza expressed his gratitude and said the borehole will eliminate the water challenges that his care giver, Ms Susan San’anza, was facing.
“I had a hard time using the toilet before NSSA came to my rescue. The new toilet is easily accessible with my wheelchair. I can now water my banana plants and earn a living,” he said.
Ms San’anza said she had to walk for about two kilometres to access water.
“When my brother-in-law was injured 18 years ago, I was staying in the city and I volunteered to come and look after him here because his wife deserted him soon after the incident. We have been encountering water challenges and the solar powered borehole will go a long way in making life easy for us. The borehole will also serve the local community,” she said.
