Akani Retirement Fund administrators will appeal a scathing judgment by the Johannesburg high court which found that the company bribed trustees of the Chemical Industries National Pension Fund (CINPF).

The judgment delivered last Wednesday said Akani had “bribed” three high-ranking trustees of the CINPF — the provident fund worth R6bn belonging to workers under the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood & Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu).

The bribe was allegedly in exchange for booting out NBC Holdings, a company that had served as administrators of the CINPF for three decades, in favour of Akani without an open tender process.

A funeral policy insurer associated with Akani made payments to the bank accounts of the three trustees — Bonginhlanhla Dangazele, Reginald Sema and Ayanda Sithole, the court heard.

Akani and the trio disputed this and claimed the payments were insurance payouts for deceased relatives, a submission rejected by the court.

“I am of the view, applying irrefutable inferential reasoning, that the true purpose of the payments to Dangazele, Sema and Sithole was a bribe,” judge LR Adams found.

Adams criticised Akani for engaging in “fraud and corruption” to dismiss competitors.

Akani deputy MD Jack Malebana rejected the judgment, which the company believes was wrong “in law and fact”.

Akani believed another court may arrive at a different conclusion, hence the appeal.

“The judgment is moot as the CINPF board terminated their administration mandate with Akani in November 2021. That said, the judgment made certain incorrect findings in law and fact which, if left unchallenged, may be misconstrued as ‘gospel truth’ by our stakeholders and [the] broader retirement industry,” said Malebana.

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