FF Plus will do everything in its power to prevent Transnet from dissolving pension funds

Any attempt by Transnet and the state to dissolve the pension fund of the 62 160 former employees will be a human rights abuse of the worst kind and the FF Plus will take every possible step to prevent this, adv. Anton Alberts, the FF Plus' parliamentary spokesperson on Transport said (see Rapport report).

Adv. Alberts says the only way in which the funds could be dissolved is through an amendment of legislation which will, amongst other things, have to be discussed in Parliament by the portfolio committee on public enterprises.

"The FF Plus will on a parliamentary level use all possible processes to oppose the dissolving of the funds.

"The effect of the dissolving of the funds will be disastrous and all of the 62 160 members and their dependents, who are already impoverished and are living far below the bread line due to the maladministration of the pension funds, will be left without any income.

"It will boil down to the same disregard as that which former president Thabo Mbeki had for the facts about HIV/Aids and will result in thousands of people dying as a result of hunger and illnesses. It is a human rights abuse of the worst kind and will be nothing other than murder.

"It is well-known that many people have died as a result of their precarious and impoverished living conditions and that many have committed suicide to escape their poverty.

"Comments by Brian Molefe, chief executive officer of Transnet, according to reports in Rapport, that the lot of the pensioners does not affect him as they are ‘beneficiaries of apartheid' are shockingly insensitive and extremely ignorant as only 53% of the members are white.

"The FF Plus has for years been working on behalf of the elderly members of the funds and will therefore be giving its full support to the court case which has started in the Gauteng North High Court in the form of a class action application," Adv. Alberts said.

Statement issued by Adv. Anton Alberts, FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson: Transport, July 21 2014

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