General

MBABANE – The Public Service Pensions Fund (PSPF) has once again openly opposed the inclusion of civil servants in the proposed conversion of the Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF).

This is the latest development following government, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, having tabled the ‘Eswatini National Pension Fund Bill, 2025’.

The conversion to a pension fund means that the ENPF will change to a defined benefit scheme.

Under this form of pension scheme, at retirement, a member will receive a monthly payment until they die, as well as a lump-sum payout, which will be a certain percentage of the entire savings calculated based on the years one had been part of the scheme.

While many emaSwati are excited about the proposed plan, employees who are represented by Public Sector Unions (PSUs) are adamant that they should be exempted from joining the proposed new national pension scheme.

The employees represented by the PSUs are members of the PSPF, a public organisation that was established in 1993 for the management and administration of pensions for government (public sector) employees.

It has been gathered that a Senior Management Team (SMT) of the PSPF held a meeting with the government Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF), where they presented what have been termed the inevitable effects of the ENPF Bill and some of the dangers of including civil servants in the proposed conversion.

Following reports of the meeting, this publication enquired from the PSPF about the nature of the discussions and the position of the parastatal regarding the issue.

In response, the PSPF management stated that the inclusion of civil servants will systematically kill the fund and result in civil servants being in a worse position than the current situation.

This is because government has categorically stated that should the ENPF be converted into a pension fund, the government, as the sponsor, will not contribute additional funds towards pensions for both PSPF and ENPF members.

The PSPF management said they have had sight of the Eswatini National Pension Fund Bill, 2025, as they are a stakeholder in social security in Eswatini.

“We also wish to be clear that any views from PSPF on the Bill or conversion are based on technical aspects and that we believe both funds have a professional mutual respect for each other’s current operations and our members,” said the management.

The management stated that from the outset, they fully support the conversion of ENPF from a provident fund into a pension fund for its (ENPF) members.

“We must, however, categorically state that the inclusion of current and/or future civil servants is not supported because civil servants are already catered for under PSPF, a statutory pension fund established by the Pensions Order No.13 of 1993,” they said.

Explaining why they say that government, as the sponsor, will not contribute additional funds towards pensions for both PSPF and ENPF members, the management said this is clear when one looks into Clause 107 (2) of the ENPF Bill, 2025, that requires existing schemes to amend their rules to accommodate the new pension fund.

The management said as a result of Clause 107 (2) of the ENPF Bill, 2025, PSPF will not be able to maintain the current benefits to members and will be forced to reduce pension fund member benefits.

“The benefits structure is actuarially based on the 20 per cent contribution rate. This reduction will leave civil servants in a worse position than they currently are in, much against the spirit of Section 195 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini,” the PSPF management said.

Also, they mentioned that the inclusion of civil servants (if at all) must not tamper with the contributions (20 per cent of basic salary) to PSPF.

They said contributions to ENPF must be made as an additional contribution to ensure that benefits from PSPF to members are not affected and that in the end, they are not made worse off.

The PSPF management said they are also aware that the civil servants have rejected the idea of joining ENPF if their benefits are negatively affected.

This, the PSPF management said they believe, is the position that is held by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) that was consulted on behalf of workers during the ENPF, 2025 drafting.

Full article can be found in our paper.

Members of the different PSUs early this month as they rallied behind the leaders of their unions who attended the Join Negotiations Forum. (Picture sourced from SNAT facebook page)