TCL case heads to court

CIVIL action over a pension dispute involving former TCL workers who claim they were robbed of approximately N$116,9 million when the mining company went bankrupt in 1998 got out of the starting blocks yesterday.

The complaint of the more than 1 000 former workers, represented by labour consultants Workers Advice Centre (WAC), was set for a Rule 6 conference at the Ministry of Labour yesterday. A Rule 6 conference provided for in the Labour Act is aimed at giving a platform to complainants and respondents to agree on certain terms before the start of formal court proceedings.Yesterday’s conference was postponed to August 15 to give the four respondents – Momentum Group Limited, Namfisa, Alexander Forbes Financial Services and Bob Meiring, the liquidator of the TCL workers’ pension fund – an opportunity to file a reply.According to the former workers, the money that wdisappeared was contained in TCL’s pension fund, to which the company was not supposed to have access.The Registrar of Pension Funds, Namfisa’s predecessor, is being blamed for authorising the withdrawals.A Rule 6 conference provided for in the Labour Act is aimed at giving a platform to complainants and respondents to agree on certain terms before the start of formal court proceedings.Yesterday’s conference was postponed to August 15 to give the four respondents – Momentum Group Limited, Namfisa, Alexander Forbes Financial Services and Bob Meiring, the liquidator of the TCL workers’ pension fund – an opportunity to file a reply.According to the former workers, the money that wdisappeared was contained in TCL’s pension fund, to which the company was not supposed to have access.The Registrar of Pension Funds, Namfisa’s predecessor, is being blamed for authorising the withdrawals.