Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Education Department continues to be inundated with calls from employees complaining about the delay and sometimes non-payment of pension claims, and is now trying to speed up the process.
Advocate Bheki Masuku, the department’s senior general manager for Corporate Management Services, said on Monday the department was still collecting data on the number of people exiting their system. Only those who contributed to the pension fund qualified for a pension payout.
Former teacher, Nomusa Mkhize-Mazibuko, whose plight was published by the Daily News last Monday, said since the publication she had received attention from the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) in Pretoria. She said she last spoke to the fund employee on Monday.
“The lady was professional, to my surprise, because previously I was treated with no courtesy whenever I called to enquire about the payment. The officer was helpful this time and told me my application was in the authorisation stage. I’m expecting feedback at least by Friday and she advised me to call her back if there was no progress by Friday. This, however, doesn’t undo my losses and I will still seek advice on how to deal with the matter,” she said.
Mkhize-Mazibuko, 55, who resigned from Othweba Primary, near Pinetown, said she had lost R1.47 million in at least two of her four life covers after she failed to pay her premiums for four months.
She resigned in January and served her notice in February after she was declared additional to the school’s requirements.
After the report was published, more teachers called in saying they were experiencing similar difficulties in accessing or having their pension claims processed.
Masuku admitted they had been inundated with calls from employees complaining about delays and sometimes non-payment of their pension claims.
“As part of our endeavour to assist, all former employees with such problems are urged to come forward so the department, working with GEPF officials, can devise ways to assist those former employees.
“We request them to submit their details to the human resources components in all 12 district offices and the department’s human resources management at its head office in Pietermaritzburg. Upon obtaining such details, the department will invite officials from GEPF to district offices to assist those affected employees with the processing of their claims,” Masuku said.
The GEPF administers pensions for government employees nationally and operates independently of government departments.
“As a department our role is to process paperwork for those employees exiting the system and forward that to the GEPF which then processes pension claims until payments are done. We are exploring possibilities of working with the fund so as to fast-track the processing of pension claims of those affected,” he said.
Daily News