Pension fund strike continues

GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - Municipal workers who are members of two trade unions in Graaff-Reinet, are still engaged in strike action at the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality over unpaid pension fund contributions.

According to Ivan Jaftha, the shop steward for the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) in Graaff-Reinet, about 80 of its members are on a go-slow after the municipality delayed answering questions about pension fund contributions deducted from their salaries, but never paid to the pension fund.

This default of payment started in 2019.

According to Jaftha their last meeting with the municipality was on Monday 1 March, following numerous other meetings with the local authority. He said it was during these earlier meetings that the union was promised that payment would be made to the workers' pension funds by 26 February 2021, and that proof of payment would be forwarded to each member.

However, this has not happened and the strike continues. Jaftha said the most affected services are those delivered by the department of water and sanitation, including refuse removal.

On 10 December last year DA Member of Parliament, Samantha Graham-Maré, laid a charge against Municipal Manager Dr Edward Rankwana based on a question she asked during the national assembly on 7 December. Her question read: "What happens to municipalities that deduct pension fund contributions from employees every month, but in many cases do not pay such contributions over to the pension fund?"

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni responded that National Treasury will engage with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) to start collecting such data as part of the regular statutory returns by municipal retirement funds.

"Non-payment of pension contributions to the pension fund by employers, is a criminal offence in terms of section 13A of the Pension Fund Act, after the Act was amended in 2013," said Graham-Maré.

She said the municipal pension contributions had not been paid to the fund since September 2019.

It is believed that the municipality intends to apply for an overdraft to cover the nearly R26-million in unpaid pension fund contributions and that the municipality has paid over contributions for October and November 2019. This could not be confirmed as the municipality did not respond to questions.