- Retrenched ZCDC workers say the company deducted pension contributions for more than three years but never remitted the money.
- IPEC data shows the state-owned miner owed more than ZWG 290 million to the Mining Industry Pension Fund before the layoffs.
- The workers have asked government to intervene and warn they will petition Parliament if the issue is not resolved.
A GROUP of former Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company workers has asked the government to recover pension money they say was deducted from their wages but never paid into their fund.
In a letter to Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, copied to Mines Minister Polite Kambamura, the retrenched employees say ZCDC deducted pension contributions from June 2022 to September 2025 but failed to remit the money to the Mining Industry Pension Fund.
The workers were laid off between 30 June and 31 July 2025.
“ZCDC was deducting our pension contributions from our salaries but not remitting the funds,” the letter says.
They say the pension fund issued arrears letters showing what ZCDC owes each worker, including interest. They say no payments have been made since they lost their jobs.
“Pension is money that is supposed to cushion us after employment,” the letter says. It adds that families are struggling with food, school fees and medical bills.
Public data from the Insurance and Pensions Commission show ZCDC is among the country’s largest employers in pension arrears.
In June 2025, IPEC listed the miner as owing more than ZWG 290 million to the Mining Industry Pension Fund, with most of the amount overdue by more than six months.
The listing shows the company was already in deep default weeks before the retrenchments began.
In the letter, the former workers accuse the regulator of failing to act after they raised the issue in July 2025.
“IPEC was silent when ZCDC was not making any effort to remit our pension contributions,” they wrote.
They ask the finance minister to direct IPEC to enforce the law, including garnishing ZCDC bank accounts and taking action against management.
Zimbabwe’s pensions law requires employers to remit deductions within 14 days after month-end.
If payments lapse for three months, the regulator can order settlement and instruct a company’s bank to transfer the money directly to the fund.
The dispute follows ZCDC’s retrenchments in mid-2025, when the company cut several hundred jobs in a restructuring blamed on weak diamond prices.
Labour groups and industry bodies gave differing figures at the time, ranging from just under 300 to about 400 workers.
In the letter, the workers frame the issue as a test of the government’s Vision 2030 agenda, which aims to build an upper middle-income economy by the end of the decade.
“His Excellency is preaching Vision 2030 and we expect ZCDC to comply and resonate with this mantra,” they wrote.
They say they will petition Parliament if the matter is not resolved.
“The truth is pension contributions are not reaching the pension fund,” the letter says. “Ordinary workers are suffering.”
