6,600 employers in South Africa owe their employees R8.33 billion in pension funds

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has revealed that thousands of companies across South Africa have fallen behind on their retirement fund contributions.

This means that affected South Africans would see a pension deduction on their paychecks every month, but this money was not actually being paid into those funds.

The FSCA’s latest report, its fifth since June 2022, lists the names of approximately 6,604 employers which are in contravention of their pension fund payment requirements.

This is merely the tip of the iceberg, as the FSCA said the number of defaulting employers now totalled 16,556 companies across 75 funds as of 28 February 2026.

This is more than triple what it was 3 years ago, when the number of defaulting employers sat at just 5,430 companies across 23 pension funds.

The total arrears for pension funds was estimated by the FSCA at around R8.33 billion, affecting more than half a million South Africans’ retirement funds.

This is an increase of approximately R1.04 billion, or 14.2%, from the R7.29 billion that was reported on 31 March 2025, with late payment interest now accounting for 43.5% of the total arrears.

While the FSCA did not publicly disclose all of the over 16,000 names, it said the ones that had been included in its latest report were chosen based on the duration and severity of their offences.

In an appearance on Newzroom Afrika, FSCA Specialist Analyst Keabetswe Tsuene said the publishing of names was meant to bring awareness to a long-standing issue.

“We would typically have engagements with our supervised or regulated entities, being retirement funds,” Tsuene said. “A lot of the time, members would say ‘we didn’t get communication’.”

“What it aims to achieve is to raise awareness not just for our members that have been affected, but also for society at large. There are entities that contract some of these employers.”

FSCA cracking down on unpaid pensions

The FSCA said it plans to significantly ramp up its efforts to increase its oversight capabilities in order to recover the billions of rands that have not been paid.

The institution found that many of these companies had fallen behind on pension payments due to rerouting those funds towards operational expenses during times of financial stress.

Speaking with 702, FSCA Divisional Executive for Retirement Funds Supervision Zareena Camroodien said the publishing of defaulting employer names had brought some success in the past.

“A billion rand has been paid in respect of the arrear contributions and late payment interest,” Camroodien said. “But of course, we are still not where we would like to be.”

“What we found is that if the boards acted sooner and more swiftly, we wouldn’t be sitting where we are today with a huge amount of arrear contributions.”

Camroodien said the FSCA would enforce Conduct Standard 1 of 2022 more strictly, mandating stringent requirements to ensure more timely pension fund payments.

This is done through the imposition of a strict deadline by which employer contributions must reflect in the pension fund’s bank account, no later than the 7th of each month.

It also requires funds to immediately notify the FSCA about any missed payments, and to report non-compliance of longer than 90 days to the South African Police Service (SAPS).

This Conduct Standard replaced Regulation 33 of the Pension Funds Act, which the FSCA repealed after it identified several loopholes that could be exploited by third-party attorneys.

“We are also collaborating with the National Prosecuting Authority, with the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations at SAPS, and SARS to really try to change this narrative,” Camroodien said.

“When the Conduct Of Financial Institutions Bill is enacted, that will make employers a supervised entity. At the moment, employers aren’t a supervised entity by the FSCA. So that will also be a game changer.”