Pensioner wins battle for payout
COURT TELLS STATE TO PAY
MASEGO Eveline Mmileng, a 62-year-old pensioner, has beaten the state hands down in court in her brave fight to have it pay out all her pension.
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has blocked a bid by the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) to avoid paying her a significant portion of her pension.
When Mmileng, from Mmabatho in North West, retired in November 2014, the GEPF’s records said her pensionable employment in the state only started in 1995.
But Mmileng began working for the government on January 13 1978 as a clerk in the office of the auditor-general of the former Bophuthatswana government.
During the hearing of the matter, Mmileng supplied documents to prove her case. These included a letter dated December 11 1984 saying she was being transferred to the Bophuthatswana Defence Force and four payslips from 1989 to 1994.
The Bophuthatswana pension fund ceased after the 1994 election. The GEPF was established in May 1996, and consolidated public sector pension funds.
Acting Judge A de Kok ruled that he was satisfied on a balance of probabilities that Mmileng “was a contributing member of a previous fund as from 13 January 1978”.
Counting in her favour was that each of the payslips she brought reflected her date of appointment as January 13 1978 and a deduction for pension.
De Kok delivered this judgment favouring Mmileng on December 15. But last month the GEPF applied for leave to appeal the ruling.
On Wednesday De Kok delivered another judgment that rejected the GEPF’s application, saying the fund failed to present compelling grounds for an appeal.
“It was argued that my acceptance of [Mmileng’s] evidence as being sufficient would open a floodgate of false claims against [the GEPF] based only on the ‘say so’ of its members,” said De Kok in his judgment.
“If there is no valid suggestion that the applicant’s claim is a fraudulent one, she cannot and should not be deprived of her right to relief because of the possibility that other people may submit fraudulent claims.
“My judgment is specific to the facts of this case. If the [GEPF] has any reason to believe that a claim made against it by another member is a false one, this judgment will not bar it from declining such a claim.”
Mmileng’s attorney Maupye Ribson Mashamaite said the GEPF agreed to pay her dating to 1989 after he took up the matter.
“Before we intervened, they were saying they can only pay from 1995,” he said. “She had to search around where she used to stay until she managed to find a payslip of 1989. Then they said ‘no, we can only pay you from this period of 1989’.”
De Kok ordered the GEPF to determine how much was due to Mmileng.