PIC heard about proposed pension raid through the press
6 February 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa to repudiate reports that he supports Cosatu's irresponsible plan for the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to take over at least R250 billion of Eskom debt. It would be shameful for the President to offer any support to a plan to use pensioners’ money to pay for the ANC’s mismanagement of Eskom.
This while the PIC says no one - neither Cosatu, the President nor Pravin Gordhan - has spoken to them about this plan.
Yesterday the DA received correspondence from PIC Acting CEO Vuyani Hako in which he makes it clear that the PIC has not yet been consulted about plans to use pension funds under its management to pay for Eskom’s debt. Meanwhile, Cosatu is claiming that there is a consensus in support of the plan. This is a lie.
It is now clear that this has been a shameful plan conceived by Ramaphosa and Cosatu, in an attempt to bully the PIC (managing more than R2 trillion of government employees' pensions) into opening the vault.
That Ramaphosa is taking the lead from Cosatu, instead of driving the real reforms necessary to save Eskom and solve the power crisis, shows how defunct his Presidency has become.
The DA reiterates its call for the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), which gives an investment mandate to the PIC on behalf of pensioners, to reject Cosatu’s proposal unequivocally. It is now more important than ever that the GEPF and PIC should appear before the Standing Committee on Finance in Parliament as soon as possible, to make their position clear on this proposal.
The actions of President Ramaphosa have shown that he is incapable of addressing the threat posed by an imploding Eskom, and instead of seeking real and effective solutions, has rather decided to raid the pensions of hardworking South Africans to pour into the Eskom black hole with no hope of a return.
The DA will not stand for this.
By attempting to force the PIC to give Eskom a free bailout, the alliance between government and Cosatu is putting the financial health of the asset manager at risk of not meeting its liabilities in the long term. This would create another need for a taxpayer-funded bailout, which no working family can afford.
The PIC cannot allow itself to be bullied and pressurised by unions and national government – it has a mandate to protect the future financial welfare of all state employees – and it would do well to publicly reject this proposal, so as to reassure citizens that their pensions are safe from the hands of those who want to use funds to save a sinking ship.
DA Shadow Minister of Finance, @geordinhl has an important message for all civil servants in South Africa who are members of the Government Employees Pension Fund:
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) February 6, 2020
The ANC government wants to take your pension savings to bail out Eskom.
We cannot allow this to happen! pic.twitter.com/KighhKcjgV
Issued by Geordin Hill Lewis,DA Shadow Minister of Finance, 6 February 2020
