PRESS RELEASE | Parliamentarians’ pension fund balks at transparency
2 July 2025:
Fossil Free South Africa (FFSA) and Open Secrets express dismay and alarm at the refusal by the South African parliamentarians’ pension fund to divulge whether it invests in fossil fuel companies and in companies trading with human rights-abusing regimes, like Israel.
The Political Office Bearers Pension Fund (POBPF) is the fund in which the pensions of all members of Parliament and the provincial legislatures, including Cabinet members (except the President) are invested.
In an application lodged in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), FFSA and Open Secrets asked the fund whether it invests in coal, oil and gas companies − the primary drivers of climate breakdown − and in companies supplying arms or commodities to regimes known to be abusing human rights.
Implications for responsible governance
The answers to these questions have “serious implications for responsible governance and our collective future”, said FFSA director David Le Page and Open Secrets lawyer Luthando Vilakazi. “The parliamentarians’ pension fund “should be held to a higher level of transparency than other funds in South Africa, given parliament’s responsibility for reigning in climate change and the stance it has already taken on Gaza.”
This includes South Africa’s effort to have Israel’s onslaught on Gaza declared a genocide by the International Court of Justice.
“If an MP’s retirement fund is dependent on the continuing profitability of fossil fuel companies, then not only is the Fund betting against a sustainable future, it simultaneously undercuts the responsibility of MPs to legislate for the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET IP)” says Vilakazi.
In its refusal, the fund is “wilfully interpreting its position in a blatant disregard for the transparency it claims as one of its founding principles,” said Le Page.
“Despite the Fund’s response we believe that the public interest override applies here considering the importance of transparency in ensuring accountability – particularly in climate-related issues and policymaking.” – Luthando Vilakazi
Publicly listed investments
In a written response for the POBPF, Jonathan Mort Inc. pension fund attorneys, said that our request did not meet the requirements of PAIA. “The Fund therefore denies your application as it neither indicates a valid right to be exercised or protected, nor how the information requested would assist the exercise or protection of a valid right.”
The POBPF’s investments are publicly listed in the fund’s financial reports. They reflect investments in a range of fossil fuel companies including Sasol, Glencore and Exxaro. These mostly appear to be of an order typical of South African pension funds, observed Le Page. “However, it’s not clear at all that the fund’s managers have ever applied their minds to the ethical issues involved in having these investments, and the conflicts of interest that arise for MPs.
“Of course, we would like all South Africans to pressure their asset managers to provide fossil fuel-free funds, and FFSA is working to persuade more asset managers to provide these. At the same time, the specific duty of MPs to act on the climate crisis gives them special responsibilities.
The POBPF’s declared Investment Strategy includes the commitment to an ethical approach to investments: The Fund’s investments should be managed in a manner that is “honest, transparent and ethical,” it states.
As things stand, it seems that parliamentarians do indeed benefit from investments in the fossil fuel industry; one whose emissions and pollution costs South Africa over R500 billion annually, added Le Page and Vilakazi.
Background:
FFSA is a non-profit organisation and network of South Africans working to secure human rights and prosperity by challenging financial and social support for the fossil fuel industry.
They are part of a growing international divestment movement. In response to the accelerating climate emergency and the continued failures by world governments to adequately regulate the fossil fuel industry, the global divestment movement has expanded to over 1667 institutions with $40,6 trillion in assets under management, including universities and cities around the world.
These include Oxford, Cambridge, Yale and Harvard Universities, Ireland, and the cities of New York, London, Paris, Melbourne, Cape Town and eThekwini, amongst many others.
In March 2022, FFSA won their long-standing campaign with students for the University of Cape Town to divest from fossil fuels.
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Open Secrets is a non-profit organisation which exposes and builds accountability for private-sector economic crimes through investigative research, advocacy and the law.
