This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.Sunday World reports security giant Mafoko Security Patrols has blamed broke municipalities as the reason it has failed to pay over pension contributions.
The debt has now ballooned to R111-million, with the company telling the Johannesburg High Court that delayed payments from its government clients pushed it into default. Mafoko is fighting to block the sheriff from attaching its assets in Gauteng and Limpopo, after it was found guilty of failing to contribute to the Private Security Sector Provident Fund (PSSPF) for thousands of security guards, with some of the defaults dating back over 10 years. The apparently employs 11,000 security guards. In a new urgent interdict, Mafoko begged the court to stop the enforcement of a writ of execution that would allow the PSSPF to recover the unpaid pension money by seizing its properties. The firm argued that its computers and servers contained highly sensitive data linked to state entities. Company director Lebo Nare claimed that Mafoko owed R20-million in unpaid pensions by February 2016 and later signed an acknowledgement of debt with the fund. She told the court the company had settled the full amount by 2018. But in a scathing reply affidavit filed last week, PSSPF legal officer Ndabazovuyo Ndabeni rubbished Mafoko’s claims. “There is no evidence to support the allegation that [Mafoko] settled the debt in full,” he attested. Ndabeni further revealed that Mafoko later signed a second acknowledgement of debt for R47-million – an amount it never honoured. “Consequently, as at the date of preparing this affidavit, [Mafoko] is indebted in the minimum sum of R39 655 666 in respect of all statutory contributions and penalty interest of R111 ,354, 605,” Ndabeni said.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane at Sunday World
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