Some individual bondholders have vehemently rejected being included in the government’s debt exchange programme.

According to one such bondholder, Roberta Sittie, a mother of five, her inclusion into the government’s debt exchange programme will rob her and her family of their means of survival.

She explained that she had invested her entire severance pay into the bond and had been living on the coupons from the bond investment.

With the introduction of the debt exchange programme, the coupons, which she described as barely adequate, will be robbed from her and her family; putting them in a rather precarious financial situation.

“That is the money I’m surviving on. The coupon is what I’m surviving on now. Someone will ask, ‘but is she not married?’ Yes, I am married. And my husband also is into contracts, but unfortunately the contract is also not paying.

“We can’t survive if it is being held, if the bonds are being held or the bonds are being rolled into the debt exchange. So please the government should please think about this. 17 and a half years working and then coming home, no, nobody should include that into their debt exchange, they should think of getting another way,” she said on JoyNews’ PM Express.

According to her, the government should instead explore other avenues to restructure their debt for debt sustainability rather than including individual bondholders in the debt exchange programme.

“If it is about they cutting their expenditures, yes. But please on your platform we’re getting through to the Finance Minister, he shouldn’t in any way include our bonds into his debt exchange; we’re begging him because I can’t survive.

“How much am I even getting on the coupon? It’s even not up to 30,000 and look at the children I have, the number of children with the family I have. It is inadequate. So how do you include me into a debt exchange programme? It’s a no-no,” she said.

Meanwhile, some individual bondholders are filing a class action law suit against the government for including them in the debt exchange programme.