Successful recoveries on Municipal Councilors Pension Fund 

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) is pleased to report that the curators of the Municipal Councilors Pension Fund (MCPF) have successfully recovered R120 million excluding VAT that was paid for vacant land. In a statement, the FSCA said that this amount represents the full purchase price which MCPF paid to Isago@N12 Development (Isago) for the land. The property was valued at approximately R70 million at the time of the sale.

Following an investigation by the FSCA in 2017, it requested the MCPF be placed under curatorship to look into investment irregularities, maladministration and mismanagement of funds by the Principal Officer. This application was granted by the North Gauteng High Court and the MCPF was placed under curatorship on 19 December 2017.  “Further investigation has revealed that the MCPF never secured registration of transfer of the vacant land in its name and had no security over this property, even though the MPCF had already paid the full price for this land,” the statement added.

“The recovery of this amount comes after numerous court cases and legal applications between the MCPF curators and Isago. The curators of the MCPF, Mr. J Damons and Ms. T Kekana, will provide a final report in the next three months on how this curatorship can be officially lifted as quickly as possible. The details on the various legal cases and applications will also be included in the final report.”

The FSCA said that curatorship is used as a last remedial action to recover losses in a fund, and the it is pleased that in this case, it served its purpose.