Sapa
TWO TRANSNET pensioners were given leave yesterday to institute an R80 billion class action suit against the parastatal and their pension funds.
Judge Ephraim Makgoba granted an order in the North Gauteng High Court to pensioners Johan Pretorius and Johan Kruger to launch a class action on behalf of 62 000 struggling Transnet pensioners in an attempt to recover close to R80bn in assets and interest.
The group has accused Transnet of stripping the Transnet Pension Fund and Transnet Second Defined Benefit Fund of its assets and mismanaging them to such an extent that the funds were unable to meet their obligations to members. They have also accused Transnet of attempting to dissolve the pension funds.
Increases to pensions have been limited to 2 percent a year for close to the past decade, reducing most of the pensioners to poverty. The court was told that numerous pensioners received only R1 a month. Currently 80 percent of them are paid less than R4 000 a month.
Most of them were between 70 and 90 years old and could no longer find employment.