The Affirmative Repositioning (AR) Movement's frontman and social activist, Dr. Job Amupanda, has accused the Benchmark Retirement Fund of being in cahoots with NAMFISA to change the provisions of the Pension Fund.
The changes, Dr. Amupanda says, will have dire consequences for fund members and their families.
On Tuesday, Dr. Amupanda presented to the public a strategy with a different color but with similar characteristics to the delayed Financial Institutions and Markets Act, Fima.
He argues that the changes will delay payments to beneficiaries, including children. "This Benchmark Retirement Fund found a strategy, and they went to NAMFISA.
As we speak, NAMFISA has approved changing the module so that if you die at 66, your money will no longer go to your wife or your child, but to your estate, meaning your children are not going to benefit. As we know, in Namibia, in some estates, it takes about five years to wait for it to be resolved." In his eight-minute-long presentation on social media, Dr. Amupanda alleges that the change in pension fund pay-outs, if affected, would be worse than what FIMA currently proposes.
The strategy proposed that anyone who resigns or becomes unemployed will only have access to 25% of their pension and will have to preserve 75% until they reach the legal age of retirement, which is 60. But it was not long after the video was released by Amupanda that Benchmark Retirement Fund released a strongly worded counter statement, labeling Amupanda ignorant. The Managing Director of the Retirement Fund Administrators, the umbrella organization under which Benchmark Retirement Fund operates, dismisses Amupanda's claims.
Marthinuz Fabianus laments that the activist is spreading misinformation, propaganda, and malicious and intentionally misguided statements aimed at tarnishing the name of the Benchmark Retirement Fund. He also stated that Amupanda is on a mission to spread fear and doubt in the minds of his followers about the Benchmark Retirement Fund and its role in the Namibian pension fund industry as a whole.
The AR activist was, however, unfazed and hit back with evidence that he says solidifies his claims. All this is contained in a letter, dated February 28, 2023, issued to fund members, which spoke of an amendment to Rule 6, which was recently approved by NAMFISA.
In it, the fund confirms that a pensioner can no longer designate a survivor to whom the remaining funds can be allocated. Under the new rules and should it be authentic, if a Beneficiary Annuity Pensioner dies, their pension payments will stop. The fund will then disinvest any remaining capital held for the Beneficiary Annuity Pensioner and pay the remaining capital to their estate in a lump sum in full and final settlement of the fund's liability towards them, subject to any provisions of the Income Tax Act.
The nbc attempted to get in contact with the Managing Director of the Retirement Fund Administrators, Marthinuz Fabianus but was informed that he was in a meeting. The spokeswoman for NAMFISA, Vicky Muranda, had promised to respond to questions sent by the nbc on Tuesday but has so far not done so.