Let’s start with your pension, Minister Gordhan
5 February 2020
Minister Pravin Gordhan has confirmed that he supports using pensioners’ savings, managed by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), to bail out Eskom. This is a deeply irresponsible policy proposal that should be resisted by government employees and pensioners alike.
We call on the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), which gives an investment mandate to the PIC on behalf of pensioners, to reject this proposal unequivocally. Their highest responsibility is to their members, the millions of hard-working South Africans that contribute to that fund every month. They have no responsibility to the ANC, and no responsibility for bailing out failed state companies.
The GEPF and PIC should also appear before the Standing Committee on Finance in Parliament as soon as possible to make their position clear on this proposal. I have written to the Committee Chairperson today to request such a meeting be called as soon as possible.
It is easy to use other people’s money to solve his problems. But if Pravin Gordhan is happy to risk the pension savings of millions of government employees to bail out Eskom’s debt, he should start by offering his own pension first.
He knows that when Eskom cannot repay the pensioners, it is the public who will have to pay eventually, through crippling higher prices and higher taxes.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has objected to Cosatu’s proposal to use over R250 billion of the money managed by the PIC to finance half of Eskom’s debt. Gordhan’s support for this proposal shows that this government really has no idea how to deal with the Eskom crisis, and is now clutching at straws.
If the GEPF approves this Cosatu proposed bailout for Eskom, state employee pensioners will never see their money again. They should not in any way rely on the supposed guarantee of their “defined benefit” pensions when this government cannot pay its bills. That is why we will resist this proposal, and call on the GEPF to do the same.
Issued by Geordin Hill Lewis, DA Shadow Minister of Finance, 5 February 2020
