The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has ruled in favour of a retirement fund and its administrator, overturning a determination by the Pension Funds Adjudicator, after a member complained to the adjudicator that he had received less than his expected pension payout because the fund had changed the rules on how the payouts were calculated.

A Pretoria News report says the matter, with Akani Retirement Fund Administrators, the Municipal Employees Pension Fund (MEPF) and the Dr JS Moroka Local Municipality as respondents, pertained to a complaint brought by John William Masangu to the adjudicator, Muvhango Lukhaimane.

Masangu had approached the adjudicator about the value of his withdrawal benefit, arguing the MEPF should have used the original fund rule to compute his withdrawal benefit after his resignation in October 2013.

The Registrar had approved amended rules in April 2014, retrospective from April 2013.

The application was heard in an unopposed motion court, during which counsel for the fund cited an earlier judgment, the Joint Municipal Pension Fund v Grobler and Others (2007), in which the adjudicator was ruled as not having the authority to pronounce on the validity of rules once registered by the Registrar.

‘Our office is not allowed to defend its rulings once taken on appeal. Therefore this was an unopposed motion where the only party represented was the fund, as the member had no money for litigation,’ Lukhaimane said.

Full Pretoria News report