“Why am I the only one who has to pay monthly penalties from my pension?”
These are the words of furious former Eastern Cape rural development and agrarian reform department employee Vuyolwenkosi Marareni, who took early retirement from his job as an extension officer several years ago.
The 62-year-old, who worked as an extension officer in Mthatha for 33 years, told the Daily Dispatch this week that he had accepted the department’s offer of early retirement without penalisation.
However, he said the department had breached its own agreement, as the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) continued deducting penalties from his pension.
The GEPF is regarded as Africa’s largest public-sector pension fund, managing retirement and related benefits for government and public-service employees.
This was despite the department making it clear that employees who accepted the early-retirement offer would not be penalised, Marareni said.
“I was a dedicated public servant working for DRDAR (department of rural development and agrarian reform) from 1988 to 2021,” he said.
“I was working as an extension officer all these years until my retirement. In 2019, the department of public service and administration (DPSA) and DRDAR issued an official national framework enticing public servants aged 55 to 59 years to take early retirement without penalisation. A binding core condition of this written state offer was that the government would absorb the standard 0.333% monthly early-retirement penalty.”
He said: “I was 57 years old when this enticement came to the fore, when the formal minister at DPSA announced this opportunity live on national television and radio.”
After deciding to take up the option of early retirement without penalisation, he was required to complete forms at his department’s human-resources section, he said.
The forms were signed by managers before being sent to the head of department in Bhisho. His human-resources manager also kept him updated on the process, he said.
However, after the outbreak of Covid-19 and the hard lockdown announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the manager told him there had been no response from Bhisho.
Marareni said he had already made up his mind about taking early retirement without penalisation.
From 2022, he lodged complaints with the department but had received no response, not even an acknowledgement of his correspondence, he said.
“What is frustrating for me is that my former colleagues are enticed to take early retirement and are given money to thank them for taking the offer, yet I am being penalised monthly.
“I just want my former employer to treat us equally and pay back all the money that has been deducted from my pension, with interest.”
He said more than R140,000 had been deducted from his pension as a penalty for taking early retirement.
According to Marareni, people who retired before reaching the age of 60 usually had to pay a penalty. However, he argued that he should not have been penalised because the department had announced the option of early retirement without penalisation.
He claimed some employees who also took early retirement without penalties had received gratitude payments from the department, in some cases amounting to about R450,000.
“I have to pay monthly penalties — why? It is not fair that I am being treated differently while other people who took the same option seem to be appreciated,” Marareni said.
When contacted for comment, provincial agriculture spokesperson Atule Joka confirmed that Marareni had applied for early retirement under the Early Retirement Without Penalisation Programme (ERWP), introduced by the DPSA in 2019.
One of the programme’s requirements was that departments demonstrate permanent savings of at least 50% of an employee’s total cost of employment.
“Due to the financial implications associated with the programme, including the pension-related costs to be borne by the employer, the application was not approved under the 2019 ERWP,” Joka said.
“Mr Marareni subsequently proceeded with voluntary early retirement with a pension penalty. This was separate from the Incentivised Early Retirement and Voluntary Exit Programme introduced by DPSA and National Treasury during the 2025/26 financial year,” he said.
“The incentive of up to R450,000 referred to in the enquiry relates to the latter programme. The incentive under that programme is funded by National Treasury and is subject to the applicable programme requirements, including considerations relating to an employee’s pensionable service.
“It is therefore important to distinguish between the 2019 ERWP application and the latter Incentivised Early Retirement and Voluntary Exit Programme.
“The latter programme was introduced after Mr Marareni had voluntarily proceeded with early retirement and does not retrospectively alter the circumstances under which his retirement took place.”
However, Marareni insisted he had completed all the documentation required for early retirement without penalisation.
He said the department had never explained why he was being penalised.