Engineering News reports that Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali has come out in support of government's prescribed retirement fund assets proposal.
In his view, trustees of worker pension funds are currently being stymied from investing in assets that would be in the long-term interests of the country and of workers. Speaking as the convenor of the labour constituency at the 24th summit of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedflac) on Thursday, Ntshalintshali noted that the prescribed-asset instrument had been deployed in the 1950s to support the development of several state-owned companies (SOCs). “We know that in the absence of prescribed assets, trustees of our funds find it difficult to invest where the returns are low, even if it is for a good cause,” Ntshalintshali explained, adding that trade unions were prepared to support the reintroduction of the mechanism. He also argued that the bail-out of SOCs should be separated from the investment case.
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