15 February 2008
REPORT
FROM
THE
MINES 1970’S PROVIDENT FUND
TO THE
AD HOC PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON MATTERS RELATED TO
EX-MINEWORKERS
pRESENTED
BY: mR
K NKOSi ........................................................ PRINCIPAL
OFFICER
mRS n
eRASMUS ............................................................... CHAIRMAN
mR j
wINSON ...................................................................... TRUSTEE
Table of Contents
History of the Mines 1970’s Provident Fund
Current Status of the
Mines 1970’s Provident Fund
8. Contact with industry hospitals
10. Community Radio Stations and Word of Mouth
13. Countries other than South Africa
Annual
Financial Statements for the Year ended December 2006Annexure C
The Mines 1970’s
Provident Fund was established in January 1970 for the benefit of miners who
were employed by members of the Chamber of Mines.
With the
establishment of the Mineworkers Provident Fund (MPF) in 1989, which
accommodated negotiated benefits between the Chamber of Mines (CoM) and the
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), there was a dramatic exodus of members from
the Mines 1970’s Provident to the MPF, and to other employer funds, such as:
·
Hartebeestefontein Provident Fund
·
Impala Workers Provident Fund
·
·
Masakhane Provident Fund
By December 1991,
the contributing membership of the Fund had dropped dramatically from 32,982 at
the beginning of 1990 to 23,870 on average for the year, and to 13,789 by the
end of 1991.
It was the practice
of the Fund to pay the balance and interest held by the Fund for members
“immediately a member ceased contributing to the Fund and joined another Fund.”
(Minutes 18 March 1992).
In October 1994,
the Board of Trustees of the Fund proposed that the Fund close to employers. By
January 1995, all participating employers had agreed to the Fund being wound up
in terms of the rules of the Fund.
However, in August 1995, the Board elected, based on advice it received,
to retain the Fund for lapsed members only, subject to the approval of the
Registrar of Pension Funds.
By September 2000,
the Fund consisted only of lapsed members. All active members and pensioners
had been transferred to other funds. The only activity in the Fund besides an
investment portfolio was the ongoing tracing and pay-out to lapsed members no
longer employed by any of the previously participating employers, and who
failed to claim their benefits from the Fund when they left their employment.
In retrospect,
there are a number of possible reasons that employees failed to claim their
benefits from the Fund:
1.
The monthly contribution of members to the Fund was R2.50,
and of employers, R4.00 per month per member, totaling R6.50 per month. The
contributions were not increased for at least 20 years from inception of the
Fund in 1970 up until the closure of the fund. The deduction from employees’
monthly salaries may have seemed increasingly insignificant to members, such
that members were perhaps unaware that they could claim from the Fund when they
left employment.
2.
On leaving employment, the member was initially limited to a
proportion of the employer’s contribution to the Fund according to the number
of years he had been in service, ranging from 10% to 100% over a 10 year
period. With the changes to the Pension Funds Act, the limited vesting rights
fell away.
3.
Many of the lapsed members of the Fund may have been foreign
migrant workers recruited outside of
4.
The date of birth of most of the members of the Fund was
defined as the 1st of January of the year following that in which
the member was deemed to have been born, reflecting the way in which the mine
employers’ record, and hence the Fund’s records, were maintained. Annexure C is
an extract from the Fund’s database demonstrating the lack of detail recorded
for members’ dates of birth.
This has proved to be a
complicating factor in verifying the identity of ex-mineworkers who present
themselves to the Fund claiming unclaimed benefits today. Most now have
Identity Documents issued by the Department of Home Affairs. The dates of birth
in their Identity Documents almost always differ from the Fund’s recorded date
of birth and the date originally allocated by the mine employer, sometimes by
many years, and often, so do their names. Fund administrators have to rely on
other corroborating evidence to match up claimants to Fund records, such as the
Miner’s work number, and the name of the mine at which he worked.
In October 2000,
Trustees consulted with the FSB about alternatives to the Guardian’s Fund. The
FSB advised the Fund that it would establish a database of lapsed members
during 2001. Details of the Fund’s lapsed members appear on the FSB’s website
of lapsed members, which has generated some successful enquiries.
In recognition of
the fact that the Fund services the needs of lapsed members only, the Registrar
of Pension Funds granted the Fund exemption from Section 7A(1) which requires
that at least 50% of the Board of Trustees must be elected by the members of
the Fund, on condition that the Fund appointed an independent trustee to the
board. The Fund appointed an independent trustee as per the requirements of
paragraph 6.1 of Circular PF No 96, and amended the Fund’s rules accordingly.
The Fund’s independent trustee is not (and never has been) in the employ of the
Chamber or any of the participating employers.
In September 2001
the Trustees renewed their efforts to trace and pay all members whose benefits
had lapsed in terms of the Rules, based on the fact that the resources at the
disposal of the mining industry were best placed to find ex-mineworkers, as
opposed to using independent or non-mining related institutions.
Actions taken by
the Fund before 2001 to trace lapsed members involved:
·
using the services of the labour recruiting
agency, Teba Limited,
·
visits to mines,
·
visits to community centres, and
·
relying on word of mouth.
Methods for tracing
members that were implemented from 2001 included:
·
continued use of the services of Teba
Limited;
·
ongoing visits to the mines and
communities;
·
matching the member lists of the Fund with
those of the Mineworkers Provident Fund (MWPF), the Mine Employees Pension Fund
(MEPF) and the Sentinel Mining Industry Retirement Fund (SMIRF); and
·
making contact with industry hospitals to
ascertain whether members of the Fund had been admitted as patients in the
recent past so that contact could be made with them.
The Fund was
provided with a list of names on the database of the Ex-Mineworkers Union, and
identified 18 common members, 6 of whom had already been paid, 3 of whom had
already been transferred to another fund, and 9 of whom were subsequently paid.
Action taken to
trace lapsed members and the success achieved in doing so is reported to the
board at six monthly intervals, together with proposals for tracing lapsed
members in the future.
The number of
members traced in the years since 2001 are summarised in Annexure D to this
circular.
In March and April
2005, the Fund advertised a Nil surplus in the press, to which there was a
minimal response from lapsed members, as summarized in paragraph 9 of Annexure
A.
On 9 December 2005
representatives of the Mines 1970 Provident Fund met with the Financial
Services Board to discuss the possible transfer of the members of the Fund and
its assets to the Mineworkers Provident Fund (MPF). The membership profile of
the Mines 1970’s Fund was considered to be most similar to that of the MPF,
which would facilitate ongoing efforts to trace lapsed members. However, the
FSB anticipated that legislation would be introduced in 2006 to establish a
State Fund for untraced members. It was
therefore agreed that no useful purpose would be served for the Mines 1970’s
Fund to pursue the transfer of its members and their assets to the MPF at that
stage.
The Fund is audited
annually and actuarial valuations are carried out on a triennial basis. A set
of the December 2006 Annual Financial Statements of the Fund is attached as
Annexure E
The investments of
the Mines 1970’s Provident Fund totaled R200 million at 31 January 2008. The
investment performance of the Fund in comparison to other industry funds is
enclosed in Annexure F. The Trustees employ investment managers to manage the
funds assets and consultants to advise them on an appropriate investment
strategy. The compounding effect of interest earned by the Fund means that the
reserves available for payment to lapsed members continue to increase.
The number of
lapsed members still to be paid by the Fund number 59,702 as at 31 January
2008. Recent analysis of the Fund’s database by Teba indicates that there may
be some lapsed members whose names are repeated in the database where the same
member left one employer and then re-joined the Fund under the name of another
employer, a practice that was accommodated by the rules of the Fund.
The annual
administration cost to the Fund for each lapsed member is approximately R33.33
or R2.78 per month, compared to an annual charge of R240, or R20 per month per
lapsed member in other industry funds.
The Trustees retain
the discretion to continue searching for lapsed members until all avenues have
been exhausted and there is no further likelihood of success. The Board’s
continued efforts to trace members includes the following:
·
·
The Fund entered into a contract with TEBA
to carry out a pilot tracing exercise, in addition to the tracing service
already provided by the Chamber of Mines as administrator.
Details of the
steps taken to trace members, and the progress over the years, are set out in
Annexure A to this report.
In 2008, the Board
resolved to obtain Counsel’s opinion to inform the Board of its remaining
obligations towards the lapsed members of the Fund, the precise scope of its
obligations towards lapsed members of the Fund, and its options for the Fund in
the future, including, possibly, re-opening discussions with the NUM.
TEBA has for many
years been the primary employment agency for mine labour. Accordingly the full
membership records of the lapsed members were downloaded from the Fund's
administration system and passed on to TEBA's Manpower Data Centre for comparison
with the TEBA database.
Where a possible
match between the Funds lapsed member data and TEBA's records was made, this
information was passed on to the nearest TEBA office to the member's
recruitment area. This office sends a message into the rural area that the
member should report to TEBA as there is a possible benefit due to him from the
mining industry. When the member presents himself, his information with
supporting documents is sent to the Fund for checking and any benefit due is
then paid to him.
The Fund obtained a
list of all registered mines in
The Principal
Officer acts as a liaison officer with the mines as a direct method of tracing
lapsed members. In essence, the Principal Officer visited various mines with a
list of lapsed members who had worked on those mines to enlist the support of
the mines not only to identify lapsed members who might still be working on the
mines, but also to request that the tracing of lapsed members be brought to the
attention of former colleagues and relatives of persons working on the mine.
Collieries and
platinum mines were also visited.
The board agreed to include platinum
mines in the Steelpoort area and to include
Communities visited
included towns in the
The services of the
Government Communication Information System was enlisted as well.
The Funds make use
of Community Advice Centres established in mining and rural areas to attempt to
contact lapsed members. These centres forward applications to the Funds on
behalf of anyone who claims to have worked in the mining industry and might be
due a benefit from one of the Funds. Although many of these claims are without
substance, each application is processed to ascertain if there is a genuine
claim.
Matching the lists
of members of the MWPF, the MEPF and the SMIRF have produced positive results
in the past. The Funds compared their
lists of members with the details of the 1970 Funds members in order to
ascertain whether there were any members of these Funds who had current contact
details and who were also members of the 1970 Funds.
It is now proposed
that matching of membership lists should be extended to other funds in the
industry, such as funds in the Ingwe group and those of Impala Platinum and
Anglo Platinum.
Industry hospitals
have been visited by the Principal Officer to ascertain whether any 1970 Fund's
members had been admitted as patients in the recent past so that these contact
details of lapsed members who had been treated at the hospitals could be used
in tracing them. In the case of deceased patients, the contact details are used
to trace dependants.
Whilst
advertisements placed in major newspapers in 2005 on the surplus in the Mines
1970 Pension Fund met with significant success. Success with the advertisements
for the Provident Fund’s “nil” surplus was limited.
Advertisements for the
surplus apportionment in the Mines 1970 Provident Fund were placed in
newspapers as follows –
Surplus
advertisements
Name of newspaper Date of publication of
advertisement
Daily Sun 31/03/2005 Provident Fund
Sowetan 31/03/2005 Provident Fund
Sunday Times 03/04/2005 Provident Fund
Sowetan 05/04/2005 Provident Fund
Daily Sun 05/04/2005 Provident Fund
Times of
Noticias –
Responses
received
The following
numbers of telephone calls were logged per month (for both the Pension
Fund and Provident Fund) -
April 1180
May 1121
June 860
July 668
Total 3829
Month Number
of inquiries (approximate)
April +/-1600 Post and Fax
May +/-2100 Post and Fax
June +/-1600 Post and Fax
July +/-1600 Post and Fax
Total approx. 6900
Positive
identifications
The following
people were identified positively as formerly untraced members of the Fund –
Pension Fund 66
Provident Fund 53
In an attempt to
make as many people as possible aware of the existence of lapsed member
benefits being held by the Fund, the Principal Officer has spoken on relevant
community radio station programmes on this matter. Having heard of the attempts
by the Fund to trace lapsed members through the radio broadcasts and by word of
mouth from other people who had heard the broadcasts, people who had been
members of the Fund presented themselves at the Fund's offices to find out
whether they are eligible for payments as lapsed members.
Contracts were
received and signed for airtime on Unitra Community Radio of the former
The airtime on the
Unitra Community Radio was from the 19th September 2006 to the 22nd
October 2006 with the Talk Show on the 26th October 2006 in
Mr. K Nkosi,
Principal Officer, obtained quotations for a series of 30 second spots and 30
or 15 minute discussion programmes.
Quotations were received from Radio
The airtime on East
Rand Stereo was from the 2nd October 2006 to the 31st
October 2006 with the Talk Show on the 2nd November 2006 in
Springs. The response on the day of the
Talk Show also forced the station to extend the time to accommodate the callers
to inquire further, whilst the office was inundated with calls at the time of
the Talk Show. We are still receiving
calls from that area. These calls did
not yield any applicants who could be positively identified as former members.
Initially, limited
use was made of tracing agents such as Teba, trade unions and private
organisations due to the cost involved.
In some cases fees would have been payable whether or not success was
achieved, and tracing companies with limited knowledge of the mining industry
did not offer a viable service. Instead
Teba was requested to place
advertisements in its rural offices in
In February 2007,
the Fund entered into a Tracing Agreement with Teba, at a cost of R416 per
traced member, who could be contacted and paid by the Fund. This has been the
most successful exercise to date, with 2500 traced in 2007, and a further
number which may approximate this.is expected from Teba’s advice to the Fund,
in 2008.
The Fund submitted
a list of untraced members to the FSB for posting on its website. Since the
names of members have been on the website a number of enquiries have been made
by members who have been positively identified as qualifying for benefits.
Limited efforts
have been made to trace lapsed members in countries such as
MINES 1970 PROVIDENT FUND
MONTHLY
MEMBERSHIP TRACING AND STATUS REPORT
2001
|
|
|
|
1970 PROVIDENT FUND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Jan, 01 |
Feb, 01 |
Mar, 01 |
Apr, 01 |
May, 01 |
Jun, 01 |
Jul, 01 |
Aug, 01 |
Sep, 01 |
Oct, 01 |
Nov, 01 |
Dec, 01 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
membership B/F |
63354 |
63277 |
63173 |
63094 |
63004 |
62923 |
62849 |
62788 |
62726 |
62625 |
62505 |
62431 |
|
|
|
|
|
Less: Transfers |
0 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
4 |
28 |
5 |
0 |
|
TOTAL
FOR 2001 |
||
|
Refund/Retrenchment |
54 |
91 |
61 |
67 |
52 |
47 |
49 |
40 |
89 |
84 |
63 |
40 |
|
|
951 |
|
|
Death/Retirements |
20 |
10 |
14 |
16 |
24 |
4 |
8 |
6 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
Duplicate record joined |
3 |
1 |
4 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total membership as at |
63277 |
63173 |
63094 |
63004 |
62923 |
62849 |
62788 |
62726 |
62625 |
62505 |
62431 |
62383 |
|
|
|
|
2002
|
|
|
|
1970 PROVIDENT FUND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Jan, 02 |
Feb, 02 |
Mar, 02 |
Apr, 02 |
May, 02 |
Jun, 02 |
Jul, 02 |
Aug, 02 |
Sep, 02 |
Oct, 02 |
Nov, 02 |
Dec, 02 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
membership B/F |
62383 |
62308 |
62249 |
62204 |
62159 |
62113 |
62063 |
62003 |
61955 |
61913 |
61873 |
61826 |
|
|
|
|
|
Less: Transfers |
15 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
TOTAL
FOR 2002 |
||
|
Refund/Retrenchment |
51 |
53 |
41 |
36 |
41 |
43 |
51 |
45 |
36 |
37 |
44 |
12 |
|
|
574 |
|
|
Death/Retirements |
5 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
|
|
|
|
|
Duplicate record joined |
4 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total membership as at |
62308 |
62249 |
62204 |
62159 |
62113 |
62063 |
62003 |
61955 |
61913 |
61873 |
61826 |
61814 |
|
|
|
|
MINES 1970 PROVIDENT FUND
MONTHLY
MEMBERSHIP TRACING AND STATUS REPORT
2003
|
|
|
|
1970 PROVIDENT FUND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Jan, 03 |
Feb, 03 |
Mar, 03 |
Apr, 03 |
May, 06 |
Jun, 03 |
Jul, 03 |
Aug, 03 |
Sep, 03 |
Oct, 03 |
Nov, 03 |
Dec, 03 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
membership B/F |
61814 |
61759 |
61733 |
61671 |
61633 |
61593 |
61569 |
61533 |
61499 |
61444 |
61374 |
61315 |
|
|
|
|
|
Less: Transfers |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
TOTAL
FOR 2003 |
||
|
Refund/Retrenchment |
50 |
24 |
58 |
34 |
38 |
22 |
36 |
34 |
48 |
59 |
53 |
39 |
|
|
543 |
|
|
Death/Retirements |
5 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
Duplicate record joined |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
10 |
4 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total membership as at |
61759 |
61733 |
61671 |
61633 |
61593 |
61569 |
61533 |
61499 |
61444 |
61374 |
61315 |
61271 |
|
|
|
|
2004
|
|
|
|
1970 PROVIDENT FUND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Jan, 04 |
Feb, 04 |
Mar, 04 |
Apr, 04 |
May, 04 |
Jun, 04 |
Jul, 04 |
Aug, 04 |
Sep, 04 |
Oct, 04 |
Nov, 04 |
Dec, 04 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
membership B/F |
61271 |
61271 |
61271 |
61170 |
61146 |
61109 |
61075 |
61047 |
61016 |
60970 |
60889 |
60818 |
|
|
|
|
|
Less: Transfers |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
TOTAL
FOR 2004 |
||
|
Refund/Retrenchment |
0 |
0 |
96 |
20 |
31 |
31 |
25 |
31 |
42 |
74 |
68 |
28 |
|
|
486 |
|
|
Death/Retirements |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
Duplicate record joined |
0 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
2 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total membership as at |
61271 |
61271 |
61170 |
61146 |
61109 |
61075 |
61047 |
61016 |
60970 |
60889 |
60818 |
60785 |
|
|
|
|
MINES 1970 PROVIDENT FUND
MONTHLY
MEMBERSHIP TRACING AND STATUS REPORT
2005
|
|
|
|
1970 PROVIDENT FUND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Jan, 05 |
Feb, 05 |
Mar, 05 |
Apr, 05 |
May, 05 |
Jun, 05 |
Jul, 05 |
Aug, 05 |
Sep, 05 |
Oct, 05 |
Nov, 05 |
Dec, 05 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
membership B/F |
60785 |
60785 |
60726 |
60694 |
60665 |
60647 |
60627 |
60614 |
60614 |
60572 |
60555 |
60544 |
|
|
|
|
|
Less: Transfers |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
TOTAL
FOR 2005 |
||
|
Refund/Retrenchment |
0 |
56 |
30 |
25 |
18 |
19 |
11 |
0 |
34 |
15 |
11 |
35 |
|
|
301 |
|
|
Death/Retirements |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
Duplicate record joined |
0 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total membership as at |
60785 |
60726 |
60694 |
60665 |
60647 |
60627 |
60614 |
60614 |
60572 |
60555 |
60544 |
60509 |
|
|
|
|
2006 / 2007
|
|
Jan-06 |
Feb-06 |
Mar-06 |
Apr-06 |
May-06 |
Jun-06 |
Jul-06 |
Aug-06 |
Sep-06 |
Oct-06 |
Nov-06 |
Dec-06 |
|
Dec-07 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
membership B/F |
60509 |
60484 |
60482 |
60460 |
60454 |
60443 |
60421 |
60394 |
60129 |
60116 |
60085 |
60060 |
|
60047 |
|
Less:
Transfers |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
TOTAL
FOR 2006 |
0 |
|
Refund/Retrenchment |
24 |
2 |
22 |
3 |
11 |
21 |
26 |
49 |
11 |
31 |
23 |
12 |
238 |
268 |
|
Death/Retirements |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0 |
|
Recordsjoined/No contribution |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
216 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
|
Total
membership as at |
60484 |
60482 |
60460 |
60454 |
60443 |
60421 |
60394 |
60129 |
60116 |
60085 |
60060 |
60047 |
|
59779 |
BJS/np/com/70fund/circ3
enclosure(tracing report provident)
Comparative
investment performance of the Fund with other industry funds