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CORRECTIONAL BURIAL FUND STRUGGLING TO PAY CLAIMS

04/02/2021 10:02:00 BY TIMES REPORTER

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MBABANE – Six months into its operations, the Correctional Services Burial Fund has found itself struggling to pay beneficiaries.

This is according to some of the officers from His Majesty’s Correctional Services who are beneficiaries of the fund.

However, the Correctional Services explained that a new twist in events due to the new COVID-19 variant has presented the Correctional Services Burial Fund with unprecedented challenges, according to Public Relations Officer Senior Superintendent Gugulethu Dlamini.

She was responding to the allegations that members of the Correctional Death Benefit Fund had been informed that it was no longer able to pay out death benefits to its members due to the many deaths of their relatives from COVID-19-related complications. The members who preferred anonymity, claimed that the latest developments were communicated to them during a meeting.

“The new twist in events due to the new COVID-19 variant has presented one of the most unprecedented challenges, as the department has observed a massive death rate among parents of officers, especially in the month of January 2021,” said Dlamini

She further highlighted that the establishment of the Correctional Death Benefit Fund was one of the moves that were undertaken by the commissioner general to assist officers financially during the loss of their loved ones.

“The fund, which is six months old, has the potential to assist all members under normal circumstances,” she said.

She said it was the COVID-19 pandemic that had presented them with challenges.

Dlamini also said looking at this rate, predictions had shown that there was a likelihood of an increase in the number of deaths and such projections could not be overlooked.

According to Dlamini, as a result, the death benefit fund administrative committee instituted a series of consultations with officers in all the Correctional Centres. She said this was solely meant to establish and/or find a way forward amid the challenges that were threatening the existence and full potential of the fund.

“However, it is worth mentioning that all parents would have benefitted as of May 1, 2021, but the outcome of the ongoing consultations will guide the members on the ultimate way forward,” added Dlamini.

Recourse

Meanwhile, one of the senior officers has approached the High Court for legal recourse over the Correctional Services Burial Fund.

The scheme is being challenged in court by Makhosonkhe Simelane, a Senior Assistant Commissioner at His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) Headquarters in Mbabane.

In his affidavit, Simelane submitted that he was employed by the HMCS on September 1, 1988 as a warder, and has been in continuous service up to date.

He said on or around May 2020, the HMCS commissioner general, the first respondent in the matter, took a decision to operationalise the death benefit fund, which had not been operational ever since he was employed.

He claimed that since the fund was not operational, officers were advised to join the Dups Insurance Funeral Scheme now known as the United Life Insurance by the previous commissioner general, which his family were still part of to date.

He said following the decision to operationalise the death benefit fund, the commissioner general assigned a team of five officers to prepare a constitution to govern it and he also gathered that they had been assigned to prepare and distribute stop order forms which were expected to be signed by all members of the fund.

The applicant further submitted that the task team never considered anyone’s input or view on the issue of operationalising the fund but only took orders from the first respondent.

“For instance, I personally suggested to the team that Article 3.1 of the constitution should be deleted and joining the fund should be optional, reason being that most of us have already secured enough death benefit covers and or policies which are predominantly far better than the one offered by the institution,” reads part of the applicant’s affidavit.

He alleged that the constitution of the fund was exclusively prepared to finality by the team of five members under the strict orders of the first respondent and the inputs of the intended members were never considered.

Furthermore, he submitted that the very same constitution being used in violation of the supreme law of the country, the Constitution of Swaziland (Eswatini) was never adopted by the general membership of the fund, nor an attempt to call a meeting for such purposes was ever made, hence the same remained a dream.

He said Article 3.1 of the fund’s constitution provided that it was mandatory that all serving HMCS officers, regardless of rank and marital status, should be members.

Veracity

These are allegations whose veracity is still to be tested in court and the responded is yet to respond.

“I respectfully state that Article 3.2 of the constitution provides that all members are required to instruct the fund to deduct from their monthly salaries premiums towards the fund by completing a stop order form. Clearly, from the wording and spirit of Article 3.2 of the constitution of the fund, same envisaged a prior authorisation and or instruction from all members which is in contrast to my offer of employment letter cited by the first respondent in her replies to my correspondence,” said the applicant.