September 2026

Wealth and longevity planning for a 100-year life

A growing number of retirees face a challenge previous generations rarely had to consider: their retirement may last as long as their working lives. For South Africans retiring in their sixties, a retirement spanning 35 or even 40 years is no longer an extreme scenario. While longer life expectancy is undoubtedly positive, it fundamentally changes how investors need to think about saving, investing and drawing an income in retirement. The question is no longer whether you can afford to retire. It...

South Africa. Unclaimed Benefits: Treasury Proposes Major Reform For Retirement Funds

National Treasury has proposed a centralised framework for administering South Africa's estimated R88 billion in unclaimed financial assets, including retirement benefits. The discussion paper outlines a system where a central administrator would manage tracing, record-keeping and claims through a single public portal, with assets potentially transferred to the Corporation for Public Deposits. South Africa Employment and HR In August 2026, National Treasury published a discussion paper titled A Framework to Centralise Unclaimed Financial Assets in South Africa, which proposes a fundamental...

South Africa. Government workers pull R15-billion from retirement savings

Government employees rushed to their retirement savings when South Africa’s two-pot system opened the door to early withdrawals. More than 564,000 claims worth about R15-billion were processed in only seven months. Statistics South Africa said the Government Pensions Administration Agency processed 564,547 claims between September 2024 and March 2025. That works out to an average of about R26,570 for each claim. The scale of the withdrawals stands out because South Africa has about 1.3-million public servants. This means the number of claims was equal...

South Africa. FSCA puts retirement fund fees and returns under scrutiny

The regulator of pension funds, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), will implement a value framework to measure if the benefits and returns received by retirement funds members justify the fees paid to the funds. A value framework is a system designed to assess whether individual pension funds are delivering adequate value to their members, and can be codified in law. The announcement of a value framework was made by FSCA divisional executive for retirement funds supervision Zareena Camroodien, speaking at...

August 2026

South Africa. Why Treasury’s unclaimed assets plan has retirement funds worried

Several financial industry representatives have welcomed proposals for centralised record management of South Africa’s nearly R90 billion in unclaimed financial assets, while raising concerns about the proposed transfer of unclaimed retirement benefits to the Corporation for Public Deposits (CPD). The CPD, a subsidiary of the South African Reserve Bank, manages deposits from public-sector entities. Industry experts have warned that retirement assets transferred to it may no longer enjoy the protections that currently apply under retirement fund legislation. The National Treasury discussion paper...

South Africa’s R2.7 trillion GEPF faces growing ESG data and governance test as pension capital comes under scrutiny

South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), the country’s largest public-sector pension fund and one of the continent’s biggest pools of institutional capital, is facing a broader governance challenge over how environmental, social and governance (ESG) information is assessed, verified and incorporated into investment decisions. With the fund holding more than R2.69 trillion in assets and more than 1.2 million active members, the quality of ESG analysis applied across its investment portfolio has implications well beyond the retirement savings...

July 2026

Africa’s Largest Fund Manager Is Under Investigation. Who Is Protecting Public Servants’ Pensions?

The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) manages the retirement savings of more than a million public servants in South  Africa, making any question over its governance a matter of public concern. Development Diaries reports that the country’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has opened a formal investigation into the PIC, which is  Africa’s largest asset manager, following the suspension of its chief executive. According to Daily Maverick, the regulator’s intervention has deepened a governance crisis already facing the institution, while TimesLIVE reported that the developments have also fuelled tensions...

South Africa. 16 municipalities caught pocketing workers’ pensions

Sixteen municipalities took money out of their workers’ salaries for pension contributions, and did not pay it over to the pension funds it belonged to. The finding came out as part of National Treasury’s decision to temporarily withhold R13.5 billion in July equitable share transfers from 69 municipalities across the country, including R3.6 billion from the City of Johannesburg. Treasury said the municipalities had shown persistent, serious non-compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act. The South African Local Government Association, which represents...

June 2026

South Africa. Has the retirement industry underestimated inflation risk?

The South African Reserve Bank's higher-for-longer interest rate outlook and revised inflation expectations have sharpened a critical challenge for retirement savers and funds: generating real returns is becoming more difficult, annuity pricing and liability assumptions may need recalibration, and portfolios designed for a low-inflation environment could struggle to deliver the outcomes members expect. For years, trustee agendas have been dominated by corporate governance, regulatory compliance, and investment performance. But as the macroeconomic landscape shifts, it’s becoming clear that parts of the industry...

May 2026

South Africa. Pay is up. So why are workers raiding pensions?

The average salary increase this year was 5.43% – comfortably above inflation. Yet those same workers are tapping pensions to buy groceries and walking out of jobs at the fastest rate since Covid. he numbers, on paper, say South African workers are doing fine. The reality says something else. The average salary increase this year was 5.43%, according to the April 2026 Remchannel Bi-Annual Salary and Wage Movements Survey. That compares with 2025’s average inflation of 3.2%. By that arithmetic, most...