Mail & Guardian reports that R60-million of South Africa’s Municipal Workers Retirement Fund contributions has been “lost” in the collapse of Namibia’s SME Bank, sparking a rift between the fund’s board of trustees.
The R60-million investment is part of some R200-million that asset manager JM Busha Investments is said to have invested in several countries in Southern Africa, allegedly without prior written permission from the fund. SME Bank was placed under liquidation in 2017 by a Namibian court. Two trustees of the retirement fund last week accused its principal officer, Themba Mfeka, of trying to keep the loss under wraps and of being too lenient on JM Busha Investments. They also accused Mfeka of failing to protect the fund from further losses after JM Busha invested R140-million — the balance of the R200-million — in relatively unknown businesses in the Southern African Development Community region. Internal retirement fund trustee documents were submitted to the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) after a trustee, dissatisfied with the non-action on the breach, turned whistle-blower. The documents show that Mfeka was notified of the breach and risk in November, but did not act until December. The whistleblower’s report has been referred to the Special Investigating Unit by the FSCA. Mfeka and the fund did not respond to questions sent to them, while JM Busha dismissed the risk, saying the R60-million would be recovered with interest earned by the end of January. The fund, which used to be the SA Municipal Workers’ Union National Provident Fund, has 26,000 members from municipalities across the country and controls about R12-billion in assets.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sabelo Skiti at Mail & Guardian
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