Disappointment over the omission of “Venda pension”

A lot of people who were expecting Pres Cyril Ramaphosa to address the issue of the ‘old Venda pension fund’ as was promised by the ANC secretary in the Vhembe region, Adv Anderson Mudunungu, have been disappointed.

Three weeks ago, Mudunungu promised that the president would address many problems, including that of the “old Venda Pension fund’ when he came for the ANC 107 manifesto launch at Thohoyandou Stadium.

However, Ramaphosa only spoke about the VBS looting, political killings and other issues but not the Venda pension matter when he addressed the gathering. He also did not touch on the matter when he addressed the people who attended a gala dinner held at Porch Villa Hotel at Muledane on Friday night.

Asked why the president had not addressed the matter as promised, Mudunungu said he was not clear what had happened. “We did not get the opportunity to get clarity as to why he did not address the matter.  We did not get the opportunity to engage with him directly before or after the address.  We spoke with the people who work in the President's office to get clarity on this matter.  They advised us to write a letter to him and we sent that letter on Monday evening,” said Mudunungu.

Asked why he had made the commitment that the president was going to address the matter before confirming with him, Mudunungu said they had submitted the proposal of issues that the community was expecting the president to address to the provincial leaders of the party, so that they could forward them to his office as is normally done during preparatory visits of this nature.

“The President has addressed all the issues we expected except the pension matter only.  There must be a reason why he did not speak about this issue.  As a ruling party, the ANC will never neglect this issue as it has been raised by our people,” said Mudunungu.

When asked why the party was only talking about the matter now, Mudunungu said it was difficult to talk about it before the court has ruled that "remedial actions of the Public Protector are binding".

"Now that the former Public Protector said the more than 24 000 former Venda employees must be paid, we expect them to be paid.  They have been waiting for too long," he added.

Meanwhile, DA leader Mmusi Maimane promised potential voters at Makhuvha Stadium, also last weekend, that his party was going to make sure that people received their money from the "old Venda pension fund".

Maimane also promised that his party would ensure that proper control  was exercised at the borders to avoid undocumented people's flocking into the country "as it contributes to crime" and puts a burden on the country’s budget.

DA media liaison officer Azola Mboniswa said Maimane’s visit was part of his campaign trail called "Kasie to Kasie tour".  He said Maimane was informed about the "old Venda pension fund" when he was engaging with the community.

"From the issues that he has collected, he will address them in parliament, so that he can get relevant information and documents to help come [up] with solutions."

No deadline has been set to address the matter, said Mboniswa. 

One of the suspected beneficiaries of the long-awaited pension, Mr Mashudu Ligunuba, said he had given up on it.

“I am no longer waiting for this money.  But our President must address this matter because many people have been waiting for too long.  The bad thing is that people are being taken advantage of by those who take their money while promising that they will help them to get their money,” said Ligunuba.

Attempts to get comment from the ANC's national or the President’s office were not successful at the time of our going to press.

Date:23 February 2019

By: Ndivhuwo Musetha

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