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Fin24 reports that according to a pension lawyer, the failure by the ANC to pay millions of rands in contributions into its employees' retirement fund has potentially opened party members up to massive fines.
But convictions in similar cases, when police have launched investigations, are usually rare. According to the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), the governing party has, since November 2018, failed to consistently pay contributions to the African National Congress Staff Provident Fund, leaving its 535 members with an R86-million hole in their pensions. Under SA's pension law, employers must pay contributions within seven days of the end of the month. But the ANC has gone as long as 18 months without paying contributions into the fund. Last week, the FSCA announced it had signed an enforceable undertaking with the fund to get the ANC to pay R10 million per month until its arrears were cleared. Such an undertaking does not compel the ANC to pay up – which it is already obliged to do. Rather, it is a document signed between the fund and the FSCA reiterating the fund's obligation to try to get the ANC to pay it. Lauren Salt of ENSafrica noted that under SA pension law, much of the onus was on pension funds themselves to ensure compliance. Breaching section 13A of the Pension Funds Act could lead to severe sanctions. But Salt cautioned that enforcing noncompliance with section 13A of the act was "notoriously difficult.” While the law was clear, Salt said that few cases made it to trial when pension funds lodged complaints with the police. She added that, in the unlikely event of an employer being found guilty of non-compliance, the most likely outcome would be a simple fine without imprisonment. The ANC Staff Provident Fund did not reply to a request for comment about whether it had lodged a complaint with the police or SA's pension funds administrator.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jan Cronje at Fin24 (subscriber access only)
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