Collapse Of Pension Fund Saddens Councillors

Barati Mathambo
Correspondent | Monday March 18, 2013 00:00

 

Giving feedback to the councillors, BALA Executive Secretary Ketlhomilwe Moletsane, said at a Special Full Council meeting in Masunga on Friday, that among all the 16 councils in the country, NED has the highest number of councillors, at 25,  who had joined the scheme.

'When the insurance policy for councillors was introduced, we had a target of 604 councillors nationwide but only 434 councillors were covered by Metropolitan,' he said.

Furthermore he said that with that number, an amount of P95,000 claims were paid to those that had joined the scheme.

Upon hearing this, councillors went up in arms demanding that their money be paid in full and with interest as they had invested their money in the scheme.

Irate Tsamaya councillor, Reginald Mudongo said that when BALA was invited to address the council he had expected them to come and tell them that their money would be returned and with interest.

'All we want is our money to be returned in full and when this scheme was started we were not told that there would be hiccups such as this,' he said.

 Tati Siding councillor, Chibuya Kuchwe said that though they were fully briefed by Metropolitan, BALA never came to them to tell them what was going on.

'BALA and Metropolitan Insurance raised our hopes for nothing and some of us went to the extent of contributing P500 every month. We did this thinking that we would benefit and now we are being told that even if the scheme has been cancelled, we won't get our money back,' said Kuchwe.

He said that something has to be done about this and since it was said that they had joined the scheme by 100% they should also get their money in full as well. Special elected councillor Ndinani Makhulela also said that as councillors all they want is their money back and with interest and also that the scheme should reopen and it should continue operating as before.

Adding on, NEDC Chairman, City Kealotswe also felt that the scheme should go on despite the fact that Francistown council, who are the brain child of the idea, are no longer interested. He felt that lack of interest in the scheme by the Francistown Council should not inconvenience the NEDC.