WATCH | 'Mafoko selfish for stealing my pension'

After working for nine years as a security guard, Oscar Nyathi discovered that his employer had shortchanged him of about R70,000 in his pension contributions.

Nyathi is one of 144 workers from Mafoko Security Patrollers who were allowed by the Johannesburg high court to attach and sell their former employer's assets to recoup the oustanding funds. The company is accused of not paying its workers' monthly pension contributions over to the Private Security Sector Provident Fund (PSSPF).

Mafoko was one of 3,000 employers named and shamed last year by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority for failing to make pension contributions for a period between four months up to 21 years, collectively owing about R7bn to retirement funds.

The judgment came after the company tried to halt the execution of writs by asking the court to set aside determinations made by the Pension Fund Adjudicator (PFA) and to recalculate the arrear amounts determined by the PSSPF on behalf of the owed workers.

Speaking to Sowetan from his home in Orlando East, Soweto, where he is renting a backroom with his two children, Nyathi said he discovered with his colleagues in 2019 that the company was not contributing towards their pensions despite deducting it from their salaries.

"We went to the PSSPF and we were told that Mafoko was not contributing. We then opened a case with the PFA to investigate whether this was true. The PFA did its investigation and gave us determination statements," he said.

Nyathi said they checked their pension balances before their contracts with the company ended.  

"We were also not getting any statements from the PSSPF about our contributions. That raised an alarm and the fund confirmed our worst fear," said Nyathi. 

The 55-year-old man said he was employed by the company in 2014 until 2023, when the company's contract at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital was terminated.

He earned between R4,000 and R5,000 and contributed about R328 monthly towards his pension. However, when he left the company, he only received R17,000 out of the R87,000 due to him as later calculated by the adjudicator.

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"While the court stands with us and has ruled in our favour, I doubt the company would pay us anytime soon. They would want to rob us like they have been doing all these years.

"But through this case, we are able to show other security guards in other companies that they too can fight for what is rightfully theirs and not to be intimidated," he said.

Director of Mafoko, Lebo Nare, did not respond to questions sent to him yesterday.

Pension Fund Adjudicator Muvhango Lukhaimane told Sowetan that the court ruling would encourage other employees who find themselves in a similar position to come forward.

"The judge also makes a point to say you can't just ignore the adjudicator's processes, and when you have a judgment against you, you go to court to set it aside," she said.  

Lukhaimane said Mafoko had been trying to delay the matter by approaching the courts.  

"When workers approach our office and they get a ruling from us, and the fund does the calculation, workers can then approach the sheriff for the sheriff to go and execute on the judgment."  

Another former employee, Sipho Dlamini, 37,  said he was fired by the company in 2021 after speaking out against its failure to contribute to the fund and to increase salaries.

" I will not give up until I receive my money. This situation has really affected me a lot, especially when I was fired.

"The company is very selfish and does not think of anyone else, it is painful to work for a company that does not care about its employees and continues to rob them."

Dlamini, who had been a shop steward, started with Mafoko in 2013 in Barberton, Mpumalanga, and was transferred to Bara hospital in 2014.

When he went to claim his pension, he  said he received only R20,300 instead of R86,000.

After losing his job, he was blacklisted due to his inability to pay debts.

Thembinkosi Vumase, 40, also worked for the company for nine years and was later hired by another security company to guard the same hospital. He said he, too, was shortchanged.

He said the company also owed him R87,000, but he only received R21,000. 

"It was really painful when I did not receive all my money," said the father of three children aged 17, 14 and three. 

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