Corruption at the Government Employees Pension Fund
MAKEKASIGREAT©®™ @KASIBC_AFRICA
ONLINE EDITOR @KASIBC_AFRICA
Corruption at the Government Employees Pension Fund
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has repeatedly warned that the failure of Parliament and the Standing Committee on Finance to exercise proper oversight over the National Treasury and its many state-owned entities has created conditions for corruption to thrive.
This explains why blatant looting can continue unabated in the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), an institution responsible for the pensions of millions of public servants. Recent revelations confirm that the Government Pensions Administration Agency (GPAA), which administers the GEPF, has been embroiled in scandal amounting to more than R1.2 billion in losses through corrupt procurement deals. Instead of safeguarding workers’ pensions, officials and their associates have enriched themselves at the expense of those who dedicated their lives to public service.
This is not an isolated case. For over a year, the EFF has exposed how trustees, fund administrators and asset managers operate in a dark web of corruption, engaging in risky, speculative and fraudulent activities with workers’ retirement savings. The result has been devastating: workers and their families find themselves destitute upon retirement because their pensions were gambled away without consequence for the perpetrators.
On 15 November 2024, the EFF tabled a motion in the National Assembly to establish an Ad Hoc Committee to investigate violations of Section 13A of the Pension Funds Act. This was in anticipation of the Revenue Laws Amendment Bill of 2023, introducing the so-called “two pot system,” where we foresaw that many workers — especially municipal employees and private security guards — would discover that their funds were missing despite monthly deductions. At the time, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) had already reported that 2,224 private security companies and 172 municipalities had failed to transfer deducted contributions to pension funds, with a cumulative R7 billion outstanding.
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Instead of addressing this crisis, the ANC, DA and IFP voted against the EFF’s motion, choosing to protect toothless bodies such as the Pension Funds Adjudicator and the FSCA, institutions that generate reports but fail to act against theft. The EFF also called on the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, to conduct a full audit of private security companies contracted by the state, and to ensure their compliance with Section 13A of the Pension Funds Act.
We demanded that any noncompliant company be barred from state contracts. The Minister failed to act, leaving thousands of workers and their families destitute. Instead, allocations to municipalities were withheld, punishing communities without addressing private sector corruption.
The EFF maintains that it is the lack of oversight and regulatory enforcement that has allowed this crisis to deepen and now filter its way into the GEPF. National Treasury and the FSCA, despite their mandates, have turned a blind eye while employers deducted money from workers but failed to transfer it to pension administrators. Regulatory institutions have allowed pension fund administrators such a Salt Employee Benefits, Akani Retirement Fund Administrators and now the Government Pensions Administration Agency to operate with impunity at the expense of workers.
This has had dire consequences. When workers attempted to withdraw a portion of their savings under the two-pot system, many discovered that their pensions did not exist, and under the GEPF which has now been exposed, attempts at withdrawals have been met with non-ending delays and no responses. This betrayal underscores the scale of negligence and collusion at play.
These are not minor administrative lapses — they are large-scale financial crimes that undermine workers’ security and the integrity of our economy. The continued disregard by National Treasury, the FSCA, and political parties complicit in blocking accountability represents a shameful stain on our democracy.
The EFF therefore reiterates that the only solution lies in wide-scale reform of the pension fund sector, arrests and prosecutions of all those involved, and the recovery of every cent stolen.
We will continue to pursue legislative mechanisms to ensure that pension administrators, asset managers, board members and regulators are held personally accountable for the theft of workers’ pensions. Workers cannot be sacrificed to a corrupt system that gambles away their future.
MAKEKASIGREAT©®™ @KASIBC_AFRICA
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