Families’ long wait for payouts drags on
‘Missing’ spouses cited for delays
A Free State family is accusing the Mineworkers Provident Fund of delaying the payment due to them.
Martha Raleting’s son died in 2009 and was soon followed by his wife, leaving their child in her care.
Raleting, 77, of Motsethabong in Welkom, said her son had nominated his wife and child as beneficiaries.
At the time of his death, the fund said there was another spouse and child entitled to benefit from the estate.
She said the other spouse and child were not nominated as beneficiaries because she had “kept the copy in which my son had nominated us”.
However, Raleting allowed the fund to trace the other spouse and child because she wanted them to be part of her family.
According to the Pension Funds Act, the funds are only allowed 12 months to trace beneficiaries, failing which the money should be paid out to other beneficiaries.
But eight years later, and the Mineworkers Provident Fund still refuses to release the remaining benefits, she said, noting that “if these beneficiaries [had] approached them for a claim, they would not have to trace them,” Raleting said.
In October last year, Raleting contacted the Pensions Fund Adjudicator Muvhango Lukhaimane. The adjudicator gave the fund two weeks to wind up the investigation.
But eleven months later, and the fund has not made any progress to locate the other spouse and child. “I doubt if they ever existed.”
Meanwhile, Roseline Monjane, 45, of Odendaalsrus, is another beneficiary who has waited eight years for the fund to find her husband’s second wife in Xai-Xai, Mozambique.
In August, the fund eventually received all the documents they needed to process the
‘‘ I kept the copy in which my son had nominated us
claim, but Monjane is still waiting for their trustees to allocate the funds.
“What is their excuse now? We cannot have another black Christmas,” Monjane said.
Jan Kgosana of the Mineworkers Provident Fund said they were still waiting for the death benefit of the Monjanes to be allocated before payments can be made.
On Raleting’s matter, Kgosana said the Mineworkers Provident Fund was still tracing the second wife and her child, adding that they were not imposters because they were nominated by the member. He said it is possible the deceased did not inform his family about his decision.