Over 100 former Msunduzi employees haven’t been paid their pension amount

More than 100 former Msunduzi employees who worked in different departments and positions are living like paupers despite having worked for the city for up to 45 years.

The Witness previously reported that the city had allegedly not paid its retirees their pension money of up to R1,7 million per person depending on their length of service.

The money was held in a Pietermaritzburg Pension Fund established in 1966, according to the city.

Pension fund liquidated
The Witness understands that the fund had since been liquidated. It went under business rescue and the existing funds were transferred to the Msunduzi Municipality.

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On Thursday, more than 50 beneficiaries, including the children and widows of those who have since died, laid bare their struggles caused by the non-payment of the pensions.

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Some have been paid a small portion while others have been left with nothing after years of retirement.

In a media briefing called by the DA on Thursday, the beneficiaries told party provincial and local leadership about losing hope in recovering their money from the city.

Although reluctant to divulge the exact amounts they were owed by the city, children of the dead beneficiaries, widows and surviving beneficiaries said they served the municipality for 25 to 45 years.

Phumzile Nzimande from kwaMafunza said she has not had peace since the death of her husband.
Nzimande said the municipality has destroyed her emotionally.

“Every morning for 45 years my husband would leave me in bed and go to work while I remained to make sure that everything worked well at home. He was 65 years when he retired in 2018 and the only amount that we received was R200 000.”

Even this amount was paid after many years of chasing after the municipality. When he finally died, I was left with the burden of looking after the family without any sort of income. I am heartbroken and I appeal to those who can to come to our assistance. We do not have money for lawyers to get to the bottom of this.
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Emotions ran high when people talked about how they have suffered long after reaching retirement with no pension payments in sight.

Claude Samuel, who worked for the city from 1978 and retired in October 2016 said members of the fund started experiencing problems with their pay-outs in 2012.

Only in 2015 were people told to attend a meeting at the city hall where they said the fund was in trouble and would be liquidated.
Samuel said that in 2017 after his retirement, he had difficulties in getting payment from the liquidators.

I am currently relying on Sassa’s R1 860 grant. Medical tariffs are high and I have to pay for municipal rates and services.
To ease the burden, he said he sold his car and now is a “burden” to his children.

Balan Pillay worked for the city for 40 years but has only received about R300 000 for his years of service.

He is still owed over a million but said he did not want to get into the details of how much was outstanding.

Megan Redlinghuys said her father Gary Lundall served the city for 40 years.

In March 2018 he turned 65 and retired. We all thought that he was blessed because he would be able to enjoy his retirement along with its benefits, and obviously we were wrong. For me and my sister this is heartbreaking and devastating to see him passing on without enjoying what he worked for, for the better part of his life. The blow of losing him would have been softer had they paid him his dues.
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The exact number of people affected and the total amount they are owed was not immediately established.

DA says this was theft of the worst kind
Francois Rodgers, DA provincial leader said this was theft of the worst kind.

“You can see by the turnout to this meeting that this is an issue that is haunting the people. Since we don’t have the municipal records we don’t know how many people are affected but we will definitely engage the courts to get justice for these people.”

We will put pressure on our legal team to fast-track the process because we believe we have a strong case here. People must not worry about the legal fees but we would like everyone here to attend the court proceedings when the time comes. We will be surprised if the city will let this get that far because it can get very costly.
Msunduzi manager Lulamile Mapholoba said he would take an item to council to request an urgent forensic investigation into the matter given the age of the fund.

I don’t want to speculate on the outcome of that investigation.
Due to the seriousness of the matter, it will require an independent person to handle.
He said it could take up to three months to have developments on the investigation.