WATCH| Five million people owed R47 billion in unpaid funds
Michael Marchant speaks to Sakina Kamwendo about the nearly R50 billion in Unpaid Pensions that belong to almost 5 million people in Southern Africa
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cancelled pensions
This investigation is about the potentially unlawful and criminal conduct of private sector actors (acting alone or with state actors) in relation to the 2007-2013 Financial Services Board (FSB) Cancellations Project. This entailed the mass-cancellation of 6757 orphan pension and provident funds (funds without a board of trustees), many of which contained assets owed to beneficiaries.
On the 23rd of October 2019, Open Secrets published the investigative report, The Bottom Line: Who Profits from Unpaid Pensions? and an accompanying booklet Look Beyond the Bottom Line. Focusing, on the role played by big corporations who administer pension funds, such as Liberty Corporate and Alexander Forbes, the report details the erroneous cancellation of pension funds between 2007- 2013 and finds that this resulted in over R40 billion in pensions owed to 4 million people.
the bottom line: who profits from unpaid pensions?
This investigative report is the culmination of a year-long investigation by Open Secrets into the pension fund industry in South Africa. According to the Financial Services Board’s 2018 Annual Report, over R42 billion in benefits is owed to over 4 million pensioners and pension fund members
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look beyond the bottom line
This booklet looks beyond the bottom line. It aims to focus on and centre the stories of the most vulnerable members of our society, those who have been systematically and structurally precluded from enjoying civil and human rights throughout South Africa’s history.
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media coverage
Newsletter |Holding Parliament Accountable for Unpaid Pensions
Nearly R50 billion. That is how much greedy and negligent pension funds and pension fund administrators owe to almost 5 million people in Southern Africa in unpaid pensions
PODCAST | The unlawful cancellation of pension funds in SA
Mudiwa Gavaza speaks to Tabitha Paine, attorney and acting head of legal at Open Secrets, and Thomas Malokotsa from Unpaid Benefits Campaign
Civil Society Organisations takes Financial Sector Regulator to Court
Media Statement Civil Society organisations take Financial Sector Regulator to court In December 2021, Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC), represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), brought an application in the Gauteng High Court against the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). In the spirit of greater transparency and responsiveness to…
Open Secrets Radio: Challenge to secretive regulations for head of South Africa’s financial sector regulator
13 May 2021| Court application by Open Secrets & UBC, represented by CALS, to challenge the appointment process of the Commissioners of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority. Hosts: Mamello Mosiana, Michael Marchant, Zen Mathe Music: Mello C- Pasikolu (licensed through Creative Commons) Open Secrets Radio is powered by Hindenburg Systems
NPO goes to court to stop state from hiring top FSCA execs ‘secretly’
The Citizen | Bernadette Wicks | 13 May 2021 Tito Mboweni contends that appointments to statutory or public institutions do not always have to follow a public process. Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign is set to square off against Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in the High Court in Pretoria today, over how the…
MEDIA STATEMENT: Civil Society organisations challenge secretive appointments regulations for head of SA’s financial sector regulator
13 May 2021 Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC), represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), have approached the Gauteng High Court to set aside portions of the regulations that were made in terms of section 61(4) of the Financial Sector Regulation Act 9 of 2017 (“the regulations”), relating to the…
Power Business with Tumisang Ndlovu: Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC)
Tumisang Ndlovu speaks to Michael Marchant, researcher – Investigations and Advocacy – Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign about the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) commissioner appointments process.
Open Secrets and UBC take Mboweni to court over financial sector regulator appointments
3 November| YouTube | Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC), represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) have applied to the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) on an urgent basis to ensure a transparent process to select the new Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).…
Civil Society organizations challenge secretive appointment process for head of SA’s financial reg
27 October 2020 | Newzroom Afrika | Civil Society organizations Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign, have applied to the High Court on an urgent basis to call for a transparent process in the selection of a new Commissioner of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.
Civil Society organisations challenge secretive appointments process for head of SA’s top financial sector regulator
Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC) apply to court to prevent the appointments process for the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) from proceeding in secret. 27 October 2020 Today, after 18 months of failing to get a response from the Minister of Finance, civil society organisations Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign,…
Countless South Africans are owed pension benefits, and yet claiming is a constant battle
Mamello Mosiana | Daily Maverick | 17 June 2020 | While few immediately associate youth issues with pensions, the reality is that many young people actively participate in and even depend on the pensions industry. This includes their participation in the ongoing struggle of millions to access more than R42-billion in pension benefits owed to…
The Unpaid Pensions Youth- the Millions Beyond the Bottom Line
16 June 2020 | Mamello Mosiana | While few immediately associate youth issues with pensions, the reality is that many young people both actively participate in, and depend on, the pensions industry. This includes their participation in the ongoing struggle of millions to access over R42 billion in pension benefits owed to individuals and families,…
HENNIE VAN VUUREN & MIKE MARCHANT: Is Tito Mboweni asleep at the wheel?
Business Live | 11 June 2020 | Questionable appointments, or failure to appoint people, remain a blot on the finance minister’s copybook. It raises the question: has he lost interest? Tito Mboweni is a politician wrapped in contradiction. He clearly thrives on the warm affirmation he elicits from his 778,000 Twitter followers. He knows how…
The Tim Modise Syndicate With Mike Marchant
10 May 2020 | You may be facing hardship but what if you’re owed money? Michael Marchant of Open Secrets of tells me there’s R43b in retirement funds owing to 5m beneficiaries & they don’t know about it. Find out how you can claim in this podcast.
Unpaid Pension Benefits: The billions that could help millions face Covid-19 fallout
Michael Marchant | Daily Maverick | 8 May 2020 | In the context of a strained fiscus and a dysfunctional social security agency – freeing up private assets that are owed to poor and vulnerable individuals could also go a long way to supporting the increase in social welfare grants. It is in this context…
MICHAEL MARCHANT: No accountability at Liberty Life
After hounding out the whistleblower who exposed Liberty Life’s disastrous pension fund cancellations programme, the insurer has sat on its hands. It is extraordinary to see how pension industry insiders leap to defend insurance behemoth Liberty Life for its scandalous handling of the unlawful cancellation of hundreds of pension funds. A recent investigative report by…
Good news for 70 pensioners who track down R650,000 in unclaimed pensions
GroundUp | Ciaran Ryan | 16 January 2019 | “This may seem small compared to the billions of unclaimed assets, but it is always nice to see a direct impact” It’s nice to share good news every now and again. Late last year we published two stories (here and here) on R42 billion in unclaimed pensions owed…
Unaccountable 00003: Captured Regulator?- The FSCA and Dube Tshidi
Unaccountable 00003: Captured Regulator?- The FSCA and Dube Tshidi By Michael Marchant Open Secrets | Daily Maverick | 3 December 2019 In part two of the Open Secrets Unaccountable series, we profiled the conduct of Liberty Group in the incorrect cancellation of hundreds of pension funds when they still held more than R100 million owed…
Ex-mineworkers dig against the odds for their unpaid pensions
Christi Nortier | Maverick Citizen | 29 November 2019 | Every Friday for the past decade, Sphiwo William Casiwe has made his way from his home in Khayelitsha to the local activist hub, the Isivivana Centre, for a meeting with fellow ex-mineworkers. He clutches his satchel as he hails taxis and navigates pavements. He rests…
Unaccountable 00002: Liberty- Profit over Pensioners
Unaccountable 00002: Liberty- Profit over Pensioners By Michael Marchant More than 16 million South Africans contribute to a pension fund, most of which are run by financial behemoths like Liberty. They do so in the hope of a decent dignified life in retirement, and to ensure their dependants will be paid if they die. While…
Trade union pension funds sit with billions of rands in unclaimed benefits
Ciaran Ryan | GroundUp | 26 November 2019 R19 billion owed to beneficiaries in metal industry More than half the unclaimed benefits of R42 billion owed to roughly 4.2 million former workers are bottled up in just two trade union-affiliated pension schemes. This is one of the findings in a recent report into unclaimed benefits…
Battle to recover R42 billion in unclaimed pension money
Ciaran Ryan | GroundUp | 19 November 2019 | A campaign to reclaim billions of rands in unclaimed benefits is about to kick into high gear. The Unclaimed Benefits Committee (UBC), representing a group of claimants, and non-profit organisation Open Secrets, are planning to lobby Parliament. “We will also be calling for a boycott of…
Who profits from unpaid pensions?
Weekend Breakfast with Refiloe Mpakanyane | 702 | 16 november 2019 | Senior Researcher at Open Secrets, Michael Marchant unpacks Open Secrets’ report looking in to the saga behind the FSCA’s unclaimed pension funds which is reportedly nearing R50 Billion now.
#PODCAST: “Open Secrets” report finds billions worth of unpaid pension funds, still under private control
Lotus FM | Newsbreak | 13 November 2019 | SABC News and Current Affairs — By Newsbreak Producer Hoossen Ebrahim – Non-profit organisation “Open Secrets” has written to the Finance Minister to investigate their report which found over 42-billion-rand worth of unpaid benefits of pension funds – still under the control of private administrators. The…
Administrators sit on more than R42bn in unpaid pension benefits — earning a fee, of course
Marianne Thamm | Daily Maverick | 10 November 2019 The R42-billion in unpaid benefits owed to more than four million South African pensioners is ‘a fundamental failure’ of public interest by state regulators and pension fund administrators, a year-long investigation by Open Secrets has concluded. Open Secrets researchers Michael Marchant, Mamello Mosiana, Leila Khan and…
What is the state of unpaid pensions in SA?
Weekend Breakfast with Africa Melane | Cape Talk | 9 November 2019 | This is the 3rd and final installment of a conversation which this show has been having about unpaid pension schemes in South Africa. Around R42 Billion is sitting in pension schemes which are administered in South Africa. These benefits have been due…
Retirement rogues and the casualties of circumstance
Ruan Jooste | Daily Maverick | 7 November 2019 | There is a mountain of money, R42bn to be exact, sitting in unclaimed benefit schemes out there, just sitting there, getting fatter, which means money for jam for the fund managers, but doesn’t afford any jam to the estimated four million people who own this…
Pension whistleblower: She lost the battle, but won the war
Sarah Smit | Mail & Guardian | 5 November 2019 | An “angry, distrustful and even vengeful woman”. This is how whistleblower Rosemary Hunter was described in an affidavit to the high court by her one-time boss, erstwhile Financial Services Board (FSB) chief executive Dube Tshidi. The former deputy registrar of pensions can laugh it…
Modise Network | Unpaid Pensions: The Bottom Line | 26 Oct 2019
While politics continues to focus the public’s attention, many may be losing out on their pensions. The network is joined by Open Secrets’ Investigator Michael Marchant to discuss this matter. Courtesy #DStv403
Open secrets report on unpaid pensions
Weekend Breakfast with Africa Melane | 702 | 26 October 2019 | Whistle blower Rosemary Hunter faced massive opposition when she called out her colleagues at the Financial services board for irregularities relating to cancelled pension schemes. As we stand, there is R42 billion in benefits is owed to over 4 million pensioners and pension…
Pensioners lose out to ‘greedy’ firms
Sarah Smit | Mail & Guardian | 25 October 2019 | Pension fund industry players continue to profit from the R42-billion owed to the four million South Africans still waiting to be paid their pensions. This is according to a recently released report by non-profit organisation Open Secrets. The Bottom Line is the culmination of…
WATCH: Millions waiting for pension payouts
ENCA | 24 October 2019 | JOHANNESBURG – More than four million people are apparently waiting for pension payouts. Non-profit organisation Open Secrets said these benefits amount to more than R42-billion. Thomas Malokotsa is still waiting for benefits from his deceased father’s pension fund, more than 30 years after his death. Malokotsa joined the Unpaid Benefits Campaign…
Millions waiting for pension payouts
OFM | 24 October 2019 More than four million people are apparently waiting for pension payouts. Non-profit organisation Open Secrets said these benefits amount to more than R42-billion. Thomas Malokotsa is still waiting for benefits from his deceased father’s pension fund, more than 30 years after his death. Malokotsa joined the Unpaid Benefits Campaign in…
Report reveals over R42-billion in unpaid benefits
Mzi Velaphi | Elitsha | 23 October 2019 | The massive theft of pensions should be called a crime, but because it has been perpetrated by corporate South Africa, it is put down to regulatory failure. An investigation by Open Secrets on the pension fund industry has revealed that there is over R42-billion owed to…
Who profits from unpaid pensions, asks new report probing wrongfully cancelled funds
Carin Smith | fin 24 | 23 October 2019 | A new investigative report released by advocacy group Open Secrets on Wednesday evening aims to put pressure on authorities to hold accountable those who wrongly deregistered a large number of pension funds, affecting thousands of people. According to the report, entitled The Bottom Line, Who Profits…
The Bottom Line: Dissecting new report on pension money in SA with Michael Marchant
22 October 2019 | SABC News | Tonight we look at an explosive new report on pension money in South Africa. Specifically unclaimed funds that could help millions of poor people. It will be released by the advocacy group, Open Secrets, on Wednesday. But we can bring you this exclusive, early look tonight. The report…
Stolen Pensions
Refilwe Moloto speaks to Open Secrets’ Researcher Michael Marchant this follows on the Financial Sector Conduct Authority’s directive to all pension fund administrators to urgently get cancelled pension funds reinstated by the courts if they found that they had been erroneously deregistered before 1 April 2018.
A first step towards justice for South African pensioners
Between 2007 and 2013, more than 6,000 pension funds in South Africa were cancelled in a process littered with errors and oversights. Today, Open Secrets has written to five of the country’s largest pension fund administrators to demand swift action to reinstate pension funds that have been incorrectly cancelled. This is the first of many…
Justice still needed for poverty-stricken pensioners after deregistration blunder
“I have saved enough to retire peacefully. But now I will turn in my grave because I will die in poverty.” This was said by Douglas Maila, a member of the Unpaid Benefits Campaign, at a protest outside Alexander Forbes demanding that it pay pensioners the benefits they are owed. Maila’s experience of contributing a…
Correspondence with the FSCA
Correspondence with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority Our letters to and from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority regarding cancelled pensions.
