N West municipal workers question pension fund inconsistencies

Employees of the Ngaka Modiri Molema Municipality in the North West have registered their concerns, after discovering inconsistencies with their funds under the Municipal Employees Pension Fund.

Despite contributing 7.5% of their salaries to the fund, many employees say they were shocked to find that their pension funds were allegedly not available, when they inquired about the new two-pot system.

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

Another employee Itumeleng Mekoa says, “We are not on the witch-hunt against MEPF and Akani or the owner Zamani Letjane for that matter. He is saying on my statement, in my statement on the portion of the death benefit. He is saying if I die now my child will get nothing, so I don’t have a death benefit in terms of this current statement that has been given to me. It shows zero, zero!

However, the Municipal Employees Pension Fund has denied the allegations, insisting that the employees’ pension funds are safe and intact.

The Marketing Manager of Akani Retirement Fund, Mathawe Matsapola says “There is money in the fund, there is no municipality that has said to them that there is no money in the fund. I wonder how they discovered that if they’ve inquired with us.”

Explain & Verify | Two-Pot Retirement System