About 40 security guards may get their full pension fund payout only after their employer, Zabalaza General Business Enterprise, pays their outstanding contributions.

Zabalaza employees, who were employed for a three-year term, said they got the shock of their lives when they were paid a pension amount that did not meet their expectations.

Madiele Liale, 45, said: "We mostly started working at the security company called Zabalaza on January 1 2015, but the contributions were sent to the Private Security Sector Provident Fund (PSSPF) on May 15 in 2016."

Though the employer was supposed to add their portion, they did not. Instead of getting a payout of R11000, Liale was paid only R2500, he said.

"All the employees whose contracts ended in November last year received between R2500 and R2700, while others got nothing," he said.

Sibusiso Mathenjwa, 42, said there were guards whose Unemployment Insurance Fund and provident fund deductions were never paid to the UIF.

He said the fund administrators knew this but had not opened a criminal case against their employer.

Zabalaza referred media queries to the fund and Sindiswa Changuion, of the PSSPF, confirmed that Zabalaza was a non-compliant employer.

She said the company did not pay the employees' pension fund on time and in full.

Changuion added that Zabalaza owed outstanding contributions and schedules to the fund.

Changuion said that after talks with the company, it signed an acknowledgement of debt agreement; the company acknowledges that it owes the fund money and agreed to settle the outstanding amounts in terms of the agreement.

However, it defaulted and by doing so did not meet the terms of the payment agreement but the employer is still responsible for paying the normal monthly contributions to the fund.

Changuion also said the outstanding monies would be paid to the employees.

"In terms of the partial withdrawal payments which were subsequently paid to members, the latter are paid with payment from the fund where the employer is non-compliant," said Changuion.

She said the partial payment was made up of the contributions that have been received from the employer and that have been allocated to member records.

The remainder of the benefit will be distributed only after the employer has paid all the outstanding contributions and provided the corresponding contribution schedules, she said.