In Zimbabwe the National Social Security Authority (NSSA), constituted and established in terms of the NSSA Act of 1989, Chapter 17: 04 is the statutory corporate body tasked by the Government to provide social security.
The provision of social security can be defined as instituting public policy measures intended to protect an individual in life situations or conditions in which his/her livelihood and well being may be threatened, such as those engendered by sickness, workplace injuries, unemployment, invalidity, old age, retirement and death.
It is based on the principle of social solidarity and pooling of resources and risks, involving drawing of savings from periods of employment, earnings and good health to provide for periods of unemployment, old age, invalidity and death. At the moment NSSA is administering two schemes: Pension and Other Benefits Scheme and Accident Prevention and Workers’ Compensation Scheme, although, in an endeavor to provide a more comprehensive social security package for the Zimbabwean society, groundwork for the introduction of more schemes is underway.
Every employer must register with NSSA and ensure that all their employees are registered, contributions made regularly and records kept
An employer means any person or any body of persons, corporate or unincorporated, having a contract of employment or apprenticeship or learnership with a worker or who employees a worker, and includes any person controlling the business of an employer.
An employee is any person who has entered into, or works under, a contract of employment or of apprenticeship or of learnership with an employer. Whether the contract is expressed or implied, is oral or in writing, and whether the remuneration is calculated by time or by work done, or is in cash or in kind.