Cross Border Portability of Social Security Benefits Between Zimbabwe and South Africa

Abstract

This dissertation is a qualitative explorative study on a possible portability regime of social security benefits that can provide income and health security to Zimbabwean return migrants. The study made use of a three tier research methodology technique that utilized key informant interviews, focus group discussions conducted among Zimbabweans working in South Africa and an analysis of regional instruments on social security within SADC. The research findings are critical in current times where globalization continue to eclipse international migration barriers thereby spurring huge influx of economic migrant workers into neighboring countries as a livelihood strategy to manage life cycle shocks. The interest of the study was to explore portability regimes that can be utilized in an intergovernmental framework to enable mainly Zimbabweans domiciled in South Africa to maintain their acquired social security rights when they decide to return to their country of origin. The income security investigated in this study was designed to seek benefits particularly for Zimbabwean migrant workers who constitute the largest stock of migrants in South Africa. Similar benefits for South African migrant workers domiciled in Zimbabwe were not within the scope of this study. The findings were set to engender SADC to devise an implementation strategy of the various social security agreements relevant for Zimbabweans in South Africa and will be inclusive of the administrative and policy arrangements necessary to give full effect of the agreements. This study acknowledged the SADC efforts in bringing portability of social security benefits to Member States however, the findings revealed that these efforts are deficient. The study revealed that SADC has a series of regional agreements meant to establish portability of social security benefits but have remained in the shelves because of the lacuna of a coordination, harmonization and convergence mechanism to give effect to these agreements. The greatest impediment to the SADC efforts to bring portability of benefits has been revealed by this study as the existence of a wide variety of local social security mechanism among the fifteen member countries. This has made it difficult for countries to harmonize for portability. It is against this realization that the research recommends that South Africa and Zimbabwe explore a binding bilateral arrangement on social security rather than wait for a multi-lateral arrangement which might present a complex and protracted process. Most of the SADC implementation plans have since expired well before they achieved any significant milestones. The exploratory nature of the study therefore considered Bilateral Arrangements as the best alternative to the SADC process. The study also gave recommendations on the SADC process if a Multi-lateral arrangements are to be effective.