Saturnia properties placed under caveats

“We are worried about the security of our benefits and for that reason we have decided to place caveats on the Saturnia properties.

“We were also worried when we saw adverts inviting tenders for the sale of pension properties which are supposed to belong to the pensioners and be held by the pension fund in perpetuity until the last pensioner has died,” he said.

In April 2016, the Pension and Insurance Authority ordered the managers of the Satunria Regna Pension Trust Fund to change Titles to the properties into the legal name of the fund. However, records at the Ministry of Lands still show Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund Registered Trustees as the owners of the properties.

Both the KCM Pension Scheme and the Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund are managed and administered by Benefits Consulting Services Limited and African Life Financial Services.

The shareholders in both companies are Menel Management Services which is owned by Mr Hakainde Hichilema, Mr Munakupya Hantuba and Mr Valentine Chitalu. Their partner is the Botswana Insurance Fund Managers.

Sanlam Insurance Zambia is a related company whose shareholders are Tiyende Consortium which is owned by Mr Hichilema, Mr Hantuba and Mr Chitalu. The other partner is Sanlam Emerging Markets which is an investment arm of Anglo American.

Lusaka lawyer Michael Mundashi, State Counsel is listed as a director shareholder and his legal firm is representing BP Zambia (now Puma Energy Zambia) in the pension claim which the Supreme Court of Zambia awarded 236 retired workers.

According to information available to the Daily Nation, the retired miners led by Mr Kasompe, have been demanding to be paid their 100 percent pension benefits for the last two years and recently petitioned the President to intervene in their plight.

“We have decided to place caveats on the properties in order to protect our benefits which are long overdue,” Mr Kasompe said.

He pointed out that all miners who have retired from KCM since have been paid 100 percent of their pension contributions but that his group of 700 miners who retired in 2019 were only refunded their 50 percent contributions.

“We were instead told to sign an agreement to move our pension contributions to Sanlam Insurance Zambia and receive our 50 percent over a period of five to ten years without any interest,” Mr Kasompe said.

He said that the retired miners did not see any logic in moving their money to Sanlam because it was equivalent to financing another company out of their hard earned pension benefits.