BusinessLive reports that former labour minister Mildred Oliphant has become the latest former cabinet member to resign as an MP.  

A number of other former cabinet members have resigned from parliament in recent weeks after failing to make it to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new cabinet.  Some of them stated that they were doing so to preserve their pensions.  However, the Political Office-Bearers’ Pension Fund is largely a defined contribution arrangement , which means that a member’s accrued retirement savings in the fund are not affected or reduced when a member moves from higher office to that of an ordinary MP.  However, total salary and therefore future contributions to the fund do reduce.  However, what could make it attractive for long-serving cabinet members to resign is a 2008 presidential proclamation providing for payment of a one-off gratuity by the employer (not the fund) to ministers or deputy ministers who have served more than five years and whose terms have ended.  This is equal to four months’ pensionable salary for every five years.

• Read the original of Bekezela Phakathi’s report on this story at BusinessLive

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