Five children of a secondary school teacher are yet to get their money from Administrator General’s office 16 years after their father’s death.
The children – one male and four females – have been struggling for years due to the Administrator General’s failure to pay them their father’s death gratuity.
Journalist Archibald Kasakura on his Facebook account wrote about the issue of 28-year-old Samson Kalikokha.
Samson’s father Gibson Kalikokha worked as a secondary school teacher for the government for 16 years. He died while Samson was in primary school.
His mother pushed for the gratuity but the government only paid K134,000 and she died in 2017.
Samson and his siblings have been struggling over the past 16 years as his father’s gratuity father has not been traced at the Administrator General’s office since 2008.
According to Kasakura, Samson who aspired to be a teacher worked as a bartender at Lunzu in Blantyre to support his four siblings in the village
Three of his four sisters dropped out school at forms 1 and 2 levels due to unavailability of school fees and general support.
His future has all been shattered together with that of his four sisters three of whom dropped from school at forms 1 and 2 levels due to unavailability of school fees and general support. They later got married.
Samson’s other sister is still in school with Samson providing for her and they live in a grass thatched house in Blantyre.
“With this rain I’m very worried if my sister will have anywhere to sleep. Our grass thatched house leaks so much. We hoped to use part of the money to raise a decent accommodation for ourselves. But all we have been told is that files can’t be traced,” Samson told Kasakura.
On November 30 this year the office of the Education Division Manager at the South West Education Division (SWED) demanded the Administrator General’s office to clarify why the payment has not been effected to the dependents of the Kalikokha up to now.
It is yet to be known if this is the start of the much awaited breakthrough for Samson since the Administrator General’s office is known for stealing beneficiaries’ money.
“Over the years a cabal of workers at the Administrator General’s office and some banks have been involved in fraud of deceased estates where millions of kwachas have grown wings sending orphans and widows to the gutter of untold poverty and misery,” said Kasakura.
Last year, the local media reported that some dependents have pushed for their money for over two decades without success, even in cases where the money was remitted to the Administrator General’s office.
In recent years, the Office of the Ombudsman has been assisting people with such cases.
