GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - Employees of the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality who belong to the Consolidated Retirement Fund are extremely concerned, as contributions of numerous employees have not been paid to the fund by the municipality since June 2019.

Last October, the Advertiser reported on the problem, but despite many requests for comment from the municipality, none has been forthcoming. Depending on the options chosen by the individual employee, other risk policies such as disability benefits and funeral cover are included with the pension fund. 

The non-payment of the policies for six months now could jeopardise the benefits available, and a councillor who queried this with the pension fund was told that benefits could be suspended.

Despite the pension fund contribution being deducted from employees' salaries, nothing has been paid over to the pension fund for the months up until December. "This is blatant theft," said one employee who did not wish to be named. "They have taken my money, but not paid it over to the pension fund."

Some municipal employees belong to the SALA pension fund, and although the problem is not as longstanding with this fund, contributions are also believed to be in arrears.

In terms of section 13A of the Pension Funds Act, an employer must pay contributions it collected from employees' salaries to the relevant pension fund by the seventh day after the end of the month in which the contributions were payable. Evidence shows that the municipality has breached this regulation.

The Pension Funds Adjudicator's latest annual report states that "a sector that deserves a special mention with noncompliance to section 13A in this reporting period is the municipal sector." 

According to the report, this led to judgements to allow for "enforcement by the sheriff that should include the attachment of municipal property to satisfy the debt".

It is unclear if meetings have been held between the municipality and the unions, or what possible agreements were discussed. 

The affected employees who spoke to the Advertiser have received no information, and attempts to get comment from the unions have been unsuccessful.

Edwardine Abader, Acting Media Liaison Officer of the DBNLM, declined to comment, as it relates to staff matters which are being addressed internally.

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