Retirees may have paid R2m to ‘dodgy’ group

Questions have been raised about the legitimacy of a group that claims to be fighting for former government workers in the Eastern Cape to get long outstanding pension benefits finally paid out.

Former Ciskei Civil Servants (FCCS) has been asking retired public servants to pay R50 into a bank account so that they can travel between the province and Pretoria to fight for their pension benefits. They said the money was for transport and accommodation.

However, the government says the pension redress programme had closed in 2014.

The government employees pension fund (GEPF) has labelled the FCCS’s work as “illegal and fraudulent” while the office of the premier says it is “dishonest”.

As part of its investigation, the Daily Dispatch tried to deposit R50 into the bank account provided to pensioners.

But a cashier at the bank’s Beacon Bay branch told the reporter on Friday the account was closed. When the Dispatch called two executives from the FCCS on Friday to ask why the account had been closed, their phones rang unanswered and they did not respond to messages.

If the 40,000 pensioners that the FCCS claims to represent each paid the R50, that means they collected R2m.

Some pensioners who paid the once-off R50 said they were sceptical about the process as they had previously paid money to people who had promised to get them their outstanding pension benefits.

At a Daily Dispatch visit to the Mdantsane NU7 community hall last month, hundreds of pensioners queued to sign up for the plan.

FCCS boss Namso Sishuba said pensioners had agreed to pay them the R50, although she could not provide any documentary proof of any agreement.

She claimed they had been told by the government pensions administration agency (GPAA) that the redress process was still open when they went to Pretoria on May 2.

However, the group was ordered to stop their programme on May 14 by officials from the office of the premier (OTP).

Eastern Cape provincial government spokesperson, Sonwabo Mbananga, said the window to apply for the pension redress programme had closed in 2014.

Mbananga said when they were alerted to what the FCCS was doing, the OTP immediately dispatched a team to ascertain the facts.

“The officials advised those in attendance that it is not correct for anybody to collect money from the public to secure information from the government.

“Anybody inviting people to submit applications for pension redress was not being truthful as the project has closed. Ms Sishuba was, accordingly, advised to stop asking people to make payments for that service.”

Asked if they would lay charges against the FCCS,