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Ex-EAC workers seek audience with Kikwete over terminal benefits
2007-12-26 09:51:55
By Correspondent Timothy Kahoho
Retired workers of the former East African Community (EAC) have appealed for an opportunity to meet with President Jakaya Kikwete over settlement of their terminal benefits.
The request was contained in a recent letter sent to the State House in Dar es Salaam early this month with a view to getting a solution to their demands which they have been following up from the Ministry of Finance since 1995.
A representative of the ex-EAC workers, Athumani Mhamakilo (80), said recently that they were yet to be paid their rights after serving the Community with utmost diligence.
``We have submitted our letter to Ikulu asking to be availed an opportunity to meet with President Kikwete so as to get a solution to our terminal benefits from the former EAC,`` he said.
He said they were over 12,000 who were employed between 1965 and 1977 in the then Cargo Handling Department before the EAC broke up and was succeeded by the Tanzania Harbours Authority until they retired in 1995.
``We are endlessly being told to come the following day,`` Mhamakilo said.
They however said they were looking forward to meeting the president in anticipation of obtaining a settlement to their terminal benefits before they died.
They allegedly told President Kikwete in the letter that they believed his officers were deliberately ignoring settling their demands as they regarded them as useless in the community.
``Therefore, we vest our last hope in you so that if this attempt fails we shall only wait for our last days to be buried,`` they reportedly said in the letter.
The EAC which they served broke up in 1977.
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