Retired civil servants demand pension redress

The pensioners were demanding that payments for retired civil servants who claimed their redress pension between 2010 and 2012 during the Pensions Redress Programme be made available immediately as many were struggling to make ends meet.

The Public Services Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) had co-ordinated the project in an attempt to redress discriminatory practices of the apartheid era in which civil servants received different levels of pay and associated pension benefits according to their racial classification.

The process was closed in March 2012 and the affected trade unions such as the Democratic Nursing Association of South Africa (DENOSA),the Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (HOSPERSA), the National Union of Public Service & Allied Workers (NAPSAW), the National Teachers Union (NATU), the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU), the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU), the Public Servants Association (PSA) and the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) later signed a PSCBC agreement on the closing out of the project.

However, some former public servants are saying these trade unions agreed to the closing of the process without their consultation and are now demanding for the process to be reopened.

Speaking for the National Association of Retired Civil Servants which organised the pensioners’ march, its secretary Wilfred Thema said when they approached government through the PSCBC to reopen the process they were undermined and were now demanding that government listen to them.

“When it came to the contributions of black and white civil servants, there was an imbalance, the whites were getting more than their black counterparts and the pension redress programme was meant to address that, but little has been done in that process. Hence we want it to be reopened,” said Thema.

Martha Matsego, 75, of Soweto in western Johannesburg, who worked as a teacher from 1961 to 2002 said the long-awaited pension redress was badly affecting their financial security despite years of service.

“We continue to live miserable lives in our old age regardless of the services we offered. We want the redress funds to be released and the process to reopen as soon as possible,” said Matsego.

Another retired teacher, 84-year-old Festina Mannya, a member of the Johannesburg Retired Teachers Association (JORETA), worked for 46 years from 1950 to 1996 and said her retirement was peanuts and she had to struggle as her husband had died many years ago.

“I never received the pension redress, that is why I am here today. Since my retirement I had to struggle with my kids’ education as I got peanuts (pension fund). I hope the redress will help change my situation, or if I don’t get it now, at least my children will benefit from it.”

Leon Gilbert of Public Service Association (PSA) said his union was concerned about the delays in finalising the redress agreements, which led to the civil servants’ protest.

However, he hoped that concerned parties would speed up the process. “We are unhappy and disappointed about the long process and the delays in finalising the redress, but we hope that the first process will be finalised by the end of the first quarter of 2016,” he said.