POLOKWANE – A protest by disgruntled former and current employees of Great North Transport (GNT) over unpaid pension fund claims entered its second week on Tuesday, with demonstrators continuing to sleep outside the Premier’s Office in the city.

The protesters, some of whom claim to have worked at the state-owned bus company for nearly 30 years, are demanding the payment of over R300m in unpaid pension and provident fund contributions. According to them, contributions were deducted from their salaries but never paid into their pension schemes. They allege misappropriation by both the GNT management and union representatives.

More than 800 former workers are reportedly still waiting for their payouts, some for over a decade.

Read more: Unpaid provident fund sparks protest by Great North Transport employees

Despite previous protests by the same group, demonstrators said they had not received a formal response from the Premier’s Office by Tuesday afternoon. “We are very disappointed. We helped put the premier in office and now she’s ignoring us,” said one protester.

The Office of the Premier issued a statement on Monday detailing the province’s official position and progress made in addressing the matter.

According to the statement, the following steps have been taken:

787 claims processed by the liquidator (Oct 2022 – June 2023).

376 files transferred to the Fedgroup Unclaimed Benefit Fund.

214 additional claims processed by Fedgroup (July 2023 – June 2025).

Read more: 34-year pension fund scandal rocks Great North Transport

A task team was also established to investigate discrepancies and missing data, with actuarial firm Moremi Actuaries appointed to quantify potential underpayments. The actuaries have since, however, encountered difficulties in retrieving historical financial data from institutions and the organisation representing the claimants, namely Mihafo.

The Premier, Dr Phophi Ramathuba said while she sympathised with the protesters, the demand that R500m be paid into Mihafo’s account was unjustifiable without verified data. “We are accountable to the public. It would be reckless for government to release R500m without supporting names, data, and statistics to back the claims. We remain committed to ensuring that all eligible individuals receive what is rightfully owed to them.”

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She confirmed that the actuarial report is expected to be finalised by the end of October.

Once complete, the findings will be submitted to Leda, GNT and Provincial Treasury for further action.