FORMER employees of the state-owned Great North Transport (GNT) bus company are still fighting to receive their pension payouts, despite repeated requests over the past seven years for government to intervene.
GNT is a subsidiary of the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment, and Tourism (Ledet), and is overseen by the Limpopo Economic Development Agency (Leda).
Former GNT employees said they were left high and dry after the company failed to pay out their pension funds.
The former employees said they had been fighting with the company over their outstanding pension monies since 2016.
Through their representative, Make It Happen Foundation (Mihafo), a social and economic justice NGO, they have called on various government departments, including the Presidency, to intervene on their behalf.
However, the situation remains unchanged.
Former employee Senyatso Modise said he has yet to receive his pension money since retiring in 2001. The 69-year-old said he had worked for GNT from 1983.
“This is a sad situation. These people do not want to give us money, despite having several meetings with them. My wife has passed away and I have to take care of my children, and I am struggling to feed them.
"I even wonder how will they go to universities after completing matric. We had meetings with these people and they promised to pay us. But nothing happened to this day,” said the father of four.
Another ex-employee, Craxon Mkhavhele, said it was a sad situation because they had been contributing to the pension fund, as well as to medical aid and insurance policies.
“Today, I have to depend on the government grant to survive. I can’t even help my children to further their education,” said the 64-year-old.
In a statement on Tuesday last week, Leda spokesperson Mthunzi Dlamini said GNT had decided to liquidate the pension fund to resolve the matter. He said the process was underway.
“As GNT, we are satisfied with the progress to date, and we can confidently announce that 84% of payments of the outstanding benefits to former employees or appointed beneficiaries of the total of 1 163 applications were successfully processed and paid,” Dlamini said.
He said in cases where beneficiaries had not received their benefits, or payments were not successfully made, this was due to non or late submission of required documents. This included problems such as bank accounts being closed, tax clearance queries, non-submission of application forms, or members not showing up.
However, Mihafo managing director Harry Masindi said while they agreed with the decision to liquidate the pension fund, he believed the company’s intention was to scrap a draft forensic report on the fund and its recommendations on irregularities.
“We agreed because it is their wish and they are going to say there is no need for the forensic investigation. The investigation implicated the government in this matter. That’s why they are liquidating. They also want to make sure that they pay what the liquidator is saying. People are not going to receive their deserving [sic] monies,” Masindi said.
Forensic investigators were appointed by the Limpopo Provincial Treasury in 2020, after GNT allegedly either failed to pay their contributions to the pension fund administrators, or made short payments, for 17 years. During this time, the company continued to make monthly deductions from salaries, in breach of the Pension Funds Act (PFA).
The draft investigative report, compiled by global firm BDO, found GNT’s annual benefit statements were unavailable, their figures unexplainable, and the fund’s benefits had decreased instead of increasing.
According to the draft report, more than R300 million had vanished from the employees' pension fund.
The company’s financial mismanagement and illegal activities led to the liquidation of the fund.
Masindi said the draft investigative report had not been made public and his efforts to have it published were unsuccessful.
He then took the matter to the Presidency. In a letter last year, he asked the Presidency to intervene and release the BDO forensic report. However, the Presidency did not attend to the matter, despite him sending it all relevant documents.
Masindi said all those implicated must be brought to book, including the fund’s administrators. He has also called for the immediate arrest of the individuals involved in the matter of the missing funds.
“The President must intervene, with all relevant departments and Chapter Nine institutions, to protect the Constitution of SA and help fight corruption.
“The President must also instruct the Limpopo provincial legislature to call the honourable premier of Limpopo, the MEC for Ledet and the MEC for Treasury to account to the legislature on the liquidation and disappearance of the GNT provident fund,” Masindi said.
He also called on the Presidency to involve the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in an investigation into corruption, maladministration and mismanagement at GNT.
Resonding to the matter on June 30 last year, Presidency stakeholder and community outreach officer, Selby Nkambule asked Masindi to send his office all necessary outstanding documents needed to study the matter. Nkambule said at the time that feedback on the matter would be given at the end of September last year.
Asked what was now delaying this feedback, Nkambule did not respond to questions sent via email and WhatsApp.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said: “This looks like a matter that should have been reported to the relevant law authorities. The Presidency does not conduct investigations.”
Limpopo provincial spokesperson Annah Oliphant referred questions to Dlamini, who insisted his previous statement answered them.
Ledet spokesperson Zaid Kalla did not respond to questions.
The Limpopo Provincial Treasury also did not respond to questions sent them.