FSCA appointments

Open Secrets and UBC intervention in secretive FSCA Commissioner appointment process

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).

founding affidavit

The FSCA acts as the oversight body for the financial sector, whose conduct has far-reaching consequences for ordinary citizens. Therefore, the independence and transparency of the FSCA is a particularly crucial safeguard of its ability to act in the public interest. Notably, the FSCA is the first regulator of its kind in South Africa, with a specific mandate to scrutinise the market conduct of actors in the financial sector, and ensure that customers are treated fairly. Given its importance, it is crucial that the public be sufficiently represented and involved in the process to appoint its commissioners.

We have asked the court to interdict the shortlisting, interviewing and selection of candidates – as directed by Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni – until public participation has been provided for to allow members of the public as well the media to have full access to these processes. We believe this is essential to protect the Constitutional imperatives of openness, transparency and accountability and the right of the public to participate in these processes

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conditional replying affidavit

National Treasury missed the 28th October 2020 deadline to submit their answering affidavit to our court application despite opposing our application. Regardless Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign represented Centre for Applied for Legal Studies (CALS) have filed our conditional reply on the 3rd November 2020.

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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…

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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,…

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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,…

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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.

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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.

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#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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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. 

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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…

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