February 2020

19Feb

South Africa. DA MP calls on Ramaphosa to break away from ANC

DA MP Geordin Hill-Lewis has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to part with factions in the ANC that were opposed to policy and structural reform, and to instead assemble a progressive coalition to govern South Africa. Hill-Lewis, in the parliamentary debate on Ramaphosa's state of the nation address (SONA), said the president had made so many unwise concessions in his bid to keep the ruling party united behind him that he seemed like a leader in retreat. Hence, he...

February 19, 2020
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13Feb

South Africa. Trade union oppose plans to finance Eskom with pension fund

South African trade union Solidarity announced that it has started a legal process to stop plans to financing Eskom from the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF). The union says it has written a letter to the GEPF as well as the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), and it is demanding that the Trustees and the Board of these institutions should not accept the controversial plan to finance Eskom from the Fund. In the letter, Solidarity called the Trustees’ attention to...

February 13, 2020
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05Feb

Controversial plan to use pensions for government funding in South Africa

Labour federation Cosatu met with government, business, community and labour leaders on Monday (3 February) to present its plan to rescue debt-stricken Eskom. Key to this plan is the use of civil servant pensions and a state-run unemployment fund to cut Eskom’s debt by about R254 billion, which would then leave the power utility with a sum of around R200 billion to service, which Eskom has previously said it can manage as it currently struggles to cover its daily...

February 5, 2020
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January 2020

30Jan

South Africa Unions Want Infrastructure Funded by Pensions

The Congress of South African Trade Unions, a key ruling party ally, is pushing senior members of government to consider its proposals to rescue the state’s indebted power utility before next month’s budget. In addition to suggestions it made in a November document that civil servants’ pensions and a state-run unemployment fund be used to cut Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s debt by more than half to 200 billion rand ($14 billion), Cosatu wants the government to consider making it...

January 30, 2020
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December 2019

24Dec

Africa’s Biggest Fund Manager Needs CEO for $150 Billion Assets

South Africa’s main manager of government-worker pensions is facing its second new year in a row without a chief executive officer as the board struggles to identify a suitable custodian of its $150 billion of assets. The state-owned Public Investment Corp. has been without a permanent leader since Daniel Matjila was ousted in November 2018, with two consecutive acting heads running Africa’s biggest fund manager in the meantime. Reuel Khoza, the PIC’s first non-government affiliated chairman, said in July...

December 24, 2019
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17Dec

South Africa Government Pension Returns 2.6% in Fiscal 2019

South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) returned 2.6% during the fiscal year ended March 31, down from 8.5% in 2018, but beating its benchmark of 2.3%. That brought its asset value to R1.82 trillion ($122.9 billion), an increase of R17 billion compared to the previous year. The fund attributed the outperformance of its benchmark to improved resource commodity prices, which it said favored the fund’s tactical overweight position in resources relative to the benchmark. The basic...

December 17, 2019
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November 2019

21Nov

South Africa. Battle to recover R42 billion in unclaimed pension money

A campaign to reclaim billions of rands in unclaimed benefits is about to kick into high gear. The Unclaimed Benefits Committee (UBC), representing a group of claimants, and non-profit organisation Open Secrets, are planning to lobby Parliament. “We will also be calling for a boycott of finance companies involved in withholding benefits,” says Thomas Malakotse, a member of the UBC steering committee. “The fund administrators have been making secret profits for decades by charging fees on these unclaimed assets,...

November 21, 2019
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08Nov

South Africa. Retirement Rogues and the Casualties of Circumstance

There is a mountain of money, R42bn to be exact, sitting in unclaimed benefit schemes out there, just sitting there, getting fatter, which means money for jam for the fund managers, but doesn't afford any jam to the estimated four million people who own this stash of cash. Read also Ghana. Health sector pensioners assured of lump sum payments come January 2020 There are multiple reasons for there being an estimated total of R42-billion in benefits owed to more than...

November 8, 2019
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October 2019

21Oct

South Africa’s PIC to Mull Options to Ease Eskom Debt: Times

South Africa’s Public Investment Corp., the continent’s largest fund manager, will meet in November to consider options on how to help embattled state-run power utility deal with its debt, Sunday Times reported, citing PIC Chairman Reuel Khoza. A strategy meeting would look at how the asset manager could “come to the rescue or assist” Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., the newspaper cites Khoza saying. The PIC would make sure “value of pensioners doesn’t get frittered away” if it steps in...

October 21, 2019
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16Oct

South African study shows how unhealthy ageing takes its toll on health and income

Population ageing is often associated with health-related challenges. But its effects also reach other spheres of life. In particular, an ageing population has a big impact on countries’ economies. Research shows how it can influence a country’s economic growth. And a similar effect can be found at the household level. Read also UK. Queen’s Speech: Govt announces Pensions Bill This is of greater relevance given there is a greater share of the population reaching older age across the world. This...

October 16, 2019
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