“It’s been far too long now,” said disgruntled Open Democracy Institute (ODI) members as they picketed outside the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) offices on Friday in Tshwane in demand of their long overdue pension funds.
They submitted a memorandum as well as application forms so as to be able to get the said pension funds from the FSCA.
Their application forms and memorandum were received by FSCA’s official Soyaphi Khoza.
Led by founder/director Ntebogeng Bhonga, about 50 members of ODI, mostly elderly citizens, used their programme called Pension Funds Action Campaign (PFAC), which actually represents thousands of pensioners, workers and concerned citizens countrywide, to call for urgent action regarding the delays and mismanagement in the process of paying out their funds.
“For far too long now pensioners have been living in financial distress, struggling to survive while their rightfully-earned pension funds remained trapped in bureaucratic red tapes or mismanagement by fund administrators,” lamented Bhonga.
“The FSCA as the regulator of pension funds administrators has failed to act decisively, leaving pensioners in poverty and uncertainty,” he said.
“This is a fight for dignity because pensioners should not have to beg for money that they have worked for, we demand action, not excuses and if the FSCA continues to ignore us we will escalate our campaign until justice is served,” warned Bhonga.
According to Bhonga, ODI through its programme PFAC is calling for urgent intervention by the FSCA to ensure justice, transparency and accountability in South Africa’s financial sector.
He said the FSCA as a regulatory body has a statutory obligation to uphold the rights of pension funds beneficiaries and ensure that all unclaimed funds are accounted for, traceable and rightfully disbursed in accordance with the law.
“The legal basis of our demands is that the Pension Fund Act of 1956 Section 37C, Section 9A and Section 13A,” he said.
“The other legal basis for our demands is the Financial Sector Regulation Act of 2017 as well as the Unclaimed Benefits Regulations under the Pension Fund Act and also under the Promotion of Access to Information Act of 2000,” he said.
Bhonga then emphasised that the other legal basis of their demands is the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa itself, under Section 34 and 195.
He said their demands included the following:
1.Immediate public disclosure of unclaimed pension funds.
2.Creation of transparent and accessible beneficiaries’ database.
3.Urgent streaming of the claims process.
4.The compensation of unclaimed funds held beyond the present legal time frames.
5.Public accountability by pension funds administrators.
6.Implementation of an independent oversight body.
7.Commitment to engagement with civil society organisations.
“We demand a formal response from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority within 14 days of submission of this memorandum and failure to comply with our demands will result in legal action to enforce compliance with the Pension Fund Act, the Financial Sector Regulations Act and the PAI Act,” said Bhonga.
He said they would also embark on mass action and national protests targeting the FSCA and government stakeholders, coupled with media exposure, Parliament petitions and legal advocacy.
“The continuing failure to release unclaimed pension funds violates the South African law and the Constitutional rights of beneficiaries,” he said.