Members of lobby group Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC) staged a march to the offices of the National Treasury in Tshwane on Tuesday to demand that the Treasury must force various pension fund administrators from various companies to release money to due beneficiaries.
UBC Co-ordinator Ntebogeng Bhonga told Tshwane Talks that he and his members came all the way from the East of Gauteng to submit a memorandum which among other issues, calls for an urgent meeting between UBC, Treasury and various fund administrators.
“Pension fund administrators of different companies are presently in possession of funds which workers of different companies worked for, and those funds are now in a retirement fund,” said Bhonga.
“We are here to demand the release of such funds because as beneficiaries, who also include old age pensioners, we desperately need those funds,” he said.
“We have held many meetings in the past with the various pension fund administrators and each time we ask them about surplus that is due to beneficiaries of the funds, we are shunted from pillar to post,” explained Bhonga.
“We want all the relevant stakeholders including the Minister of Finance and the FSCA as the regulator to intervene and make sure that beneficiaries get what is due to them,” he said.
He said many people have worked for many years and were only paid provident funds and that their retirement funds are still outstanding.
Bhonga revealed that there is close to 447 pension fund administrators in South Africa including companies like Alexander Forbes, Liberty and Momentum and that they want those companies to pay up, and that what is worrying is that it is only black beneficiaries of these funds who are struggling to get their monies while white beneficiaries have been paid their dues.
“This problem cuts across all sectors of employment countrywide like mining, paper manufacturing, retail and chemical industry,” said Bhonga.
He said there is approximately R88,56 billion that has not been claimed from pension fund administrators in South Africa.
He bemoaned the fact that those who were members of pension funds from 1980 to 2001 will be excluded from the surplus accruing from those funds and that this was unfair as people who are in this category have contributed to the GDP and economy of the country.
“We are giving the Treasury 21 days to respond to our demands and failure to do so will result in us coming back to Pretoria in greater numbers early next year to drive our point home,” said Bhonga.
“We also want to go and protest at the State of the Nation Address (SONA) next year and force the President to address this matter and we also want the Minister of Finance to also come on board regarding this matter in his budget speech next year,” he said.
“We know that this is a long road to go, but we will be chasing after pension fund administrators, the Minister of Finance and the president of the country like wild dogs,” he fumed.
Alphius Nqoma told Tshwane Talks that the pension funds that people are demanding are monies that they have worked for and that many of them are struggling as they are now pensioners who rely only on the inadequate government’s pension grant.
He revealed that at the East Rand Gold Mine each beneficiary has close to R100 000 from the pension surplus fund which has not been paid to them. ” The release of the said pension funds will help beneficiaries to alleviate poverty and help them invest the money in various business institutions,” said Nqoma.
Another beneficiary Peter Maleka (62) told Tshwane Talks that he and his fellow beneficiaries have been negatively impacted by failure to get their pension funds and that in some instances the beneficiaries have died without getting their money, but their dependents are still alive and living in poverty.
Yet another beneficiary Thomas Malokotsa (62) told Tshwane Talks that children are forced to drop out of tertiary institutions due to inability to pay tuition fees and pointed out that he would have liked to go to study at university if the pension fund had been paid out by the administrators.
“I have received your list of demand all 16 of them and they will be delivered to the minister of finance.
We also noted that we need to respond in the period of 21 days, and I can promise that will be done,” said directors cooperate services in the national treasury Lutendo Ramalebana.