While the new representative body for the marketing industry, the MA(SA) (Marketing Association of South Africa) if not legally connected in any way to the ill-fated MFSA, the irony of this situation is that the decision not to offer any help with the pension fund payouts was conveyed in a letter from the MA(SA) by someone who was a director of the MFSA when it collapsed.
He wrote: “After careful consideration and collective input from the relevant Board Members, I wish to advise that MA(SA) will not become involved in this matter.
“The MA(SA) is not the successor in title to the MFSA and primarily for this reason, do not want to take on the legal responsibility and/or the liabilities of the MFSA, or to be perceived to do so.”
The fact of the matter though, was that the MA(SA) was not being asked to get involved from a legal viewpoint or to take on any liabilities but simply to ask the pension fund adminstrators to get on with the job. To contact a few people in high places to get things moving. Hardly asking a lot. Just a bit of time and effort. Certainly not compromising from a legal standpoint.
Not one of the former MFSA directors has bothered to lift a finger on this issue since day one. None of them cared. All of them were the country's leading and respected marketers. Some of them are now involved in the new MA(SA).
All of them have turned their backs on employees who served the industry faithfully and who are now desperately trying to get their pensions paid out. So much for “respectable” members of the marketing community.
It is small wonder that so many accountants, chief executives and other people in business don't trust marketers as far as they can throw them.
The stumbling block right now is a bureaucratic Liberty Life that is administering the pension payout.
Two years ago, Liberty blamed the delay squarely on the fact that it was not able to get hold of any former directors of the MFSA to simply sign the necessary documents.
Now it is blaming everything from a lack of actuarial staff at Liberty to delays caused by the Pension Fund Second Amendment Act. A litany of lame excuses.
All of which make Eskom and Telkom look like the epitome of efficiency by comparison.
While one would probably not expect much more than excuses and ducking of issues from Liberty, it is quite remarkable that the MA(SA) has decided to skulk behind legalities when all it is being asked to do, without compromising itself, is help some fellow marketers who are up a creek without a paddle.
All they are being asked to do is to apply some pressure, some lobbying, to unblock a bureaucracy. Just a bit of help.
Instead they have just raised a middle finger.
It's disgusting.
