Member Statement made in Parliament by Adv. Anton Alberts, FF Plus MP:
The Freedom Front Plus views the delay in the supplementing of the Transnet pension fund as scandalous. The appointment of a sub-committee to investigate the funding anew after Parliament had given an instruction to Transnet and the Treasury, speaks of the contempt with which South Africa’s pensioners and the aged are treated by the government.
Striking public service workers are accommodated precisely because they pressurize the government through mass public protests. The aged on the other hand, especially Transnet pensioners, can as a result of their age not undertake public mass action and are therefore placed low on Transnet and the government’s priority list.
But let me state it unequivocally that the true test of a humane government is not how it moves when it is placed under pressure by the forces that can exert influence like unions, but by how it treats those who are weak and defenceless, like its children and elderly. This parliament has shown that it cares for the elderly by having made a decision to assist the Transnet pensioners, but I cannot truly say the same for the executive and its parastatal, Transnet.
It is now more than a year after the parliamentary decision was made and the instruction given to Transnet and the Treasury to fund the increases and bonuses to be made for the benefit of the pensioners.
Against this background, we must hear that the state loses R30 billion due to endemic corruption, that Transnet had made a profit of more than R5 billion, that ministers spend huge sums on travel and accommodation and so I can continue, yet the Transnet pensioners will face another bleak Christmas. Why is this? Because these pensioners are not a priority.
Therefore, the Freedom Front Plus will continue to make this matter a priority with appropriate action until government listens, for this government does not seem to be a compassionate one. It only moves when forced. And that is then what we will do. Unless you and the trustees do move compassionately before Christmas.
