Transnet is dishonest with its boasting of the last couple of days that over the years it has paid billions of rand in bonuses to pensioners, Adv. Anton Alberts, the FF Plus’ parliamentary spokesperson on Transport says.
 
He said that viewed in the light of the pathetic 2% increase that pensioners receive from the two pension funds annually, it boils down to money which pensioners should have received a long time ago, is used to generate their own bonuses.
 
Transnet has announced that pensioners will each receive a bonus of R2 656, 71. This is the equivalent of a month’s pension. Pensioners also received such a ‘bonus’ in November of last year.
 
Adv. Alberts says Transnet is now boasting that the bonuses which it has paid out to pensioners since 2007 amounts to R2,054 billion.
 
The largest portion of this money for the bonuses comes from the surplus of the funds which arose due to the poor increases of only 2%. Transnet should not mislead the public. The company does not contribute anything toward these bonuses.
 
“Transnet is actually now on the defensive because they have failed to pay overdue debts to their pension funds and stripped certain assets which gave rise to the poor annual increases of pensions.
 
“This issue will be considered in court very shortly. The FF Plus believes that Transnet will then have to pay that which is truly due to pensioners. These word games do not put food on the table of thousands of people who are in great despair,” Adv. Alberts says.
 
Approximately 70 000 pensioners has instituted a class action against Transnet at the North Gauteng High Court where compensation of nearly R80 billion is being claimed from Transnet and the government.
 
This is the largest claim in South Africa’s legal history. A date for the court to hear the case is being awaited from the deputy judge president of the court. The FF Plus will keep the relevant parties informed of the developments.