Municipal employees raise concerns on pension fund irregularities

Employees of the Ngaka Modiri Molema Municipality have registered their concerns after discovering inconsistencies with their pension funds under the Municipal Employees Pension Fund (MEPF).

Despite contributing 7.5% of their salaries to the fund, many employees in the North West were shocked to find that their pension funds are allegedly not available.

They made this discovery when they started to inquire about the new two-pot system. This has left employees deeply concerned about the management of their retirement funds.

Pension Fund benefits have now caused distress for many. Keitumetse Modibedi, whose husband passed away in October last year, says although she received 50% of the payout, the portion allocated to her children has not been paid.

When she inquired, she was told that children over the age of 21 would not receive any benefits. This has caused emotional strain as her child are demanding their father’s money.

”My children are now asking me about their money. When they speak with the Akani representatives, they’re told that the money has been deposited into my account. However, when I contact Akani, they inform me that once the children are over 21, they don’t receive their money directly. My youngest child, who was in college finishing her final semester, was told they would only pay her the money,” she laments.

Employees voiced frustrations over the deductions made from their salaries monthly. Some recalled a change in the resignation benefit amount that was significately reduced in 2016.

This change raised eyebrows with employees starting to suspect foul play in the management of their pension funds. Vague responses about the fund being fully audited, when questions were asked about their pensions, worsened the situation for the employees.

Bareng Moepeng and Itumeleng Mekoa are some of the affected employees.

Moepeng says, ”We forwarded information to Akani to investigate current statements because I asked them if these statements are audited. They said they are audited. Because whenever we inquired about them they will say they are still auditing statements, but there are lot of errors on the statements despite being audited.”

Mekoa says, ”We are not on a witch hunt against MEPF and Akani or the owner, Zamani, let alone Jane for that matter. He is saying on my statement on the portion of death benefit … he is saying if I die now my child will get nothing. So, I don’t have death benefit in terms of this current statement that has been given to me. It shows zero zero. I so wish God can keep me for the next 10 years because I still need to understand what is this thing.”

According to Ngaka Modiri District Municipality Mayor, Khumalo Molefe the municipality has been contributing an additional 22% towards the employees’ pensions. However, the MEPF says the municipality’s contributions were directed towards administration fees rather than the actual pension fund.

Molefe says they have taken the matter to court.

Mayor Khumalo Molefe says, ”As the employer, we have resolved … we have taken a council resolution and with that council resolution, we have taken a decision to support the employees, totally. We have sought the legal advice, but the workers have taken a decision to say help us to get out of this mess.”

This while the MEPF denied all the allegations, saying the employees’ pension funds are safe and intact. Marketing Manager of Akani Retirement Fund, Mathawe Matsapola, says ‘That is not true. There is money in the fund. There is no municipality that we’ve said to them that there is no money in the fund. I wonder how they discovered that if they’ve inquired with us, and we told them that there is no money because we have been emphasising to the members that there is money in the fund.”

Cosatu in the province expressed concern over the issue and plans to seek assistance from unions to compile a list of all affected municipalities and employees. The labour federation says it plans to seek assistance from unions to compile a list of all affected municipalities and employees.

Cosatu Provincial Secretary, Kopano Konopi, says, ”It is a cause for concern for us and we are going to call on all our unions so that they can a survey to say which of the employers are defaulting in terms of the payment of the third parties. Because sometimes you arrive at Sars you want to declare in terms of tax returns they will tell you the last time that the employer has transferred the money it’s a year or two. You go on retirement or somebody dies in the family. You’ll only discover at the time the money has not been paid over to the fund administrator and it is something that we must look  at it.”

As the legal process unfolds, the uncertainty continues to raise fear among employees about their financial security in retirement.