JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) said on Friday the curators of the Municipal Councilors Pension Fund (MCPF) had successfully recovered R120 million irregularly paid for land.
In a statement, the FSCA said the pension fund had paid the money to Isago@N12 Development for the vacant land, valued at approximately R70 million at the time of the sale.
Following an investigation in 2017, the FSCA successfully applied to the Pretoria high court for the MCPF to be placed under curatorship to look into investment irregularities, maladministration and mismanagement of funds by the principal officer.
The MCPF was placed under curatorship in December that year.
“Further investigation has revealed that the MCPF never secured registration of transfer of the vacant land in its name and had no security over this property, even though the MPCF had already paid the full price for this land,” the FSCA said on Friday.
“The recovery of this amount comes after numerous court cases and legal applications between the MCPF curators and Isago."
It said the MCPF curators would provide a final report in the next three months on how the curatorship could be officially lifted as quickly as possible.
Curatorship is used as a last remedial action to recover losses in a fund, and the FSCA said it was pleased that it had served its purpose in this case.