{
  "id": 13136391,
  "title": "Municipalities need to account for unpaid pensions: Maswanganyi",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/09/municipalities-need-to-account-for-unpaid-pensions-maswanganyi",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-09T13:58:47.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "SABC News",
    "slug": "sabc-news",
    "url": "https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/municipalities-need-to-account-for-unpaid-pensions-maswanganyi/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Dr. Joe Maswanganyi, chairperson of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance, plans to hold the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa, and municipalities accountable for unpaid pension contributions. The committee received a briefing on this issue from the Pension Fund Adjudicator, SALGA, and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. Municipalities have a shortfall of R1.79 billion owed to pension funds, despite deducting the funds from employees' salaries. The issue became more prevalent with the implementation of the Two Pot system in 2024, which allows employees to withdraw money from their pension funds. The committee is concerned about the persistence of this problem at the municipal level, as it is a criminal offense. Maswanganyi emphasized that the situation cannot be allowed to continue without accountability, stating that if he were a pensioner at his current age, he would feel betrayed if he was told he would receive no pension contributions. He argued that this treatment of pensioners who have worked for 40 years for the municipality and have been loyal would be akin to criminality, leaving them to live as paupers.",
  "summary": "Maswanganyi calls those responsible to pay pension contributions to account.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}