EFF welcomes the Bloemfontein High Court ruling against Mafube Municpality in the Free State, which was ordered to repay R37.7 million of stolen municipal workers’ pensions
16 September 2024
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) welcomes the ruling by the Bloemfontein High Court handed down against the Mafube Local Municipality in the Free State, which ordered the municipality to repay R37.7 million of municipal workers' pension funds which had been embezzled by officials within the municipality.
In a scathing judgment, the court found that the violation of Section 13A of the Pensions Fund Act, which obligates timeous payments to the pensions of employees was a "practice by the municipality (that) seems to have continued over the years; frivolous defences and non-payment of its employees' pension fund contributions remains unabated"
The judgement goes further to affirm the criminality practiced by this municipality, and states that .the municipality considers it prudent to present various remedies and strategies to obtain the outstanding monies, but conveniently avoids addressing the elephant in the room: what happened to the pension fund contributions that had been deducted by the Municipality?".
Acting Judge Thiloshni Ramdeyal therefore correctly instructed that the registrar of the court bring the matter to the attention of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), to further bring charges to the municipality on the criminal activities and violations of the Pensions Fund Act.