Chairperson, the retirement industry in South Africa is a very large one with hundreds of billions of rand invested in it. Most formerly employed people use these funds and their products to save for their postemployment retirement.
In this matter, these citizens provide privately for their retirement and should therefore as a rule not become a financial burden to the state. However, the regulation of the industry has not always been as tight as it could have been and, as Treasury puts it, some very creative legal interpretations have been used to circumvent the spirit and letter of the law.
Key challenges for government in the regulation of the retirement fund industry include lowering costs, improved governance, improved performance by trustees, the correct application of the surplus legislation, improving the supervisory powers of the financial services board and encouraging the culture of compliance. The Bill aims to address these challenges and the IFP, therefore, supports it.
In general terms, retrospective application of legislation can be construed as being against the fundamental principles of the rule of law and the certainty of the legal environment that it creates. The IFP, however, accepts that the Minister and Treasury have used retrospection in this case to increase the protection afforded by the law to former members, particularly as it is alleged that cases of abuse took place well before the cut-off date as proposed and it will continue to do so in the future.
The IFP also supports the amendments of bringing the pension funds adjudicators in line with the Prescription Act and that the Minister may appoint one or more deputy adjudicators and that an acting adjudicator could improve operational efficiency in that office. I've got a lot to say. I have a long speech here, but I can see that the hon members are really tired, at this stage, being put to the limit and I think that I would like to set an example by tabling the rest of my speech for inclusion. Before I do that, I just hope that the same dedication that the committee and the Ministry have shown in terms of this, will also apply when looking at Members of Parliament's own pension funds. Let them just see if they can't do something about that, because it is truly miserable and we need to have a look at it. I thank you. [Applause.]