Daily Maverick reports that in a startling revelation for workers in the automotive industry, this sector emerged as the worst offender in the Financial Sector Conduct Authority round-up of employers who were not paying over employee pension fund contributions.
This is a particularly worrying development in light of the potential retrenchments envisaged in this sector over the next year. Naamsa, the automotive business council, has described the jobs situation as “a socioeconomic crisis in the making”. With the auto sector supporting more than 500,000 jobs, the US tariff shock has put the industry’s entire value chain at risk.
In a damning sector-wide report released on Thursday, the FSCA noted that overall 15,521 non-compliant employers were reported across 67 retirement funds, impacting around 592,000 retirement fund members. This was a significant jump from figures shared almost two years ago in December 2023, when the non-compliant employers numbered 7,770, affecting 310,000 employees. The amount of estimated pension fund contributions in arrears was estimated at R7.29-billion, up from R5.2-billion in December 2023.
The private security sector, which was the worst offender in December 2023, seems to have cleaned up its act. Keabetswe Tsuene from the FSCA’s retirement fund conduct supervision department said that after concerns were previously raised regarding the Private Security Sector Provident Fund (PSSPF), the fund initiated a data cleansing drive, which remained ongoing. Referring to local government, Tsuene said that, in collaboration with the National Treasury, millions owed to members and retirement funds had been recovered.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Neesa Moodley at Daily Maverick
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