Despite managers earning a minimum of R2million a year, pensioners of Transnet, the company behind South Africa’s national transport businesses, are living below the poverty line, shows a recent survey.
The semi-government-run institution runs South Africa’s ports , Petronet, Metrorail, Transtel, and South African Airways. Yet Transnet’s Second Fixed Benefits-pension fund pays 77,000 pensioners who retired before November 2000 an average monthly pension of only R2,800. Some 3000 Black widows – dependents of Transnet workers who retired before 1974 – receive an average monthly pension of only R262.
Since 2002, pensioners receive a meager 2% increase per annum – while the inflation rate is more than 13%. According to payslips, this year members’ pensions are worth less than in 2004 because of double-figure increases in their monthly medical aid fund contributions.
Dr. Manie van Dyk of the Democratic Alliance said Transnets Executive head Maria Ramos, who earns R5.4-million and an achievement bonus of almost R5.8 million, should “empower the trustees of the fund to change the rules (that determine an increase of 2% in the annual pension benefits)”. He suggested that fund regulations provide for an annual increase equal to the previous year’s inflation rate.
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