Africa-Press – Namibia. BENCHMARK Retirement Fund has reacted strongly to accusations made by former Windhoek mayor Job Amupanda in a series of viral social media videos.
In the videos posted yesterday, Amupanda said Benchmark found ways to loot pension fund monies and changed its rules to prevent members from accessing their pension fund money from the fund.
“As we are speaking, they found the best possible way of taking people’s money through using these retirement funds,” Amupanda said before detailing how, in his view, the fund is manipulating the system to hold onto the pension funds of their members.
Benchmark has expressed its disappointment and frustration with Amupanda’s video.
The fund has refuted all the claims made by Amupanda and has assured its members that their pension fund monies are safe and secure.
Managing director of the fund Marthinuz Fabianus said Benchmark has reserved its legal rights to take action against Amupanda for spreading false information that is causing unnecessary panic and fear among pension fund members.
“The extent of Amupanda’s ignorance of his understanding of the operation of retirement fund schemes was laid bare in the process of his utterances and it is extremely unfortunate that someone with his following chooses to mislead and misinform the public instead of obtaining the necessary clarity and correct information before venturing into providing public statements,” Fabianus said in a statement yesterday.
Fabianus said the public must ignore the claims made by Amupanda and seek information from credible sources.
Benchmark is an umbrella retirement fund founded and sponsored by RFS Fund Administrators in January 2000.
Fabianus said various umbrella retirement funds registered in Namibia, including Benchmark, all operate on current pension fund laws and in compliance with the Namibian Income Tax Act.
According to the Income Tax Act, one-third of a member’s capital payable from a pension fund may be commuted tax free, while the balance of two-thirds of the capital upon retirement is payable in the form of a pension, paid for life to a pensioner.
Benchmark currently has more than 15 000 members spread across more than 100 different employer groups participating in the fund.
Amupanda also claimed Benchmark is used in the absence of the Financial Institutions and Markets Act (Fima), which is now on hold following controversies.
Fima was supposed to come into effect in October 2022, but was postponed after coming under fire for possibly being difficult to apply, as some regulations that were supposed to aid in smoothing out its application appeared to raise administrative costs.
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