North West municipal unions to approach courts after pension benefits lapse

Municipal Unions in the North West say they will now approach the courts after the pension benefits of more than 1200 municipal workers lapsed due to non-payment.

In a recent parliamentary reply, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said four North West municipalities have defaulted. Workers from Tswaing Local Municipality are concerned.

“When you pay pension funds you are covered in terms of your disability and the risk covers so non-payment of the municipality will mean that employees will not claim benefits from the pension funds.”

“I realised in January 2018 that our pension funds are not paid.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Cooperative Governance in the province says it amounts to gross negligence. MEC Mmoloki Cwaile says they will bring those responsible to book.

“We are also going to engage creditors who should be paid for this purpose and establish if we cannot have some form of order for them to be able to be paid. We will also seek to make a redress because it is gross negligence and we hope we will find a means to ensure consequence management.”