TimesLIVE > By TimesLIVE - 08 January 2021 - 10:08 Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane says she will continue to offer her assistance to the family of Tshimangadzo Tshiololi. File image Image: Moeletsi Mabe
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has offered her condolences to the family of a man who has died without a resolution to a 12-year pension dispute affecting dozens of former employees of the former Venda homeland.
“It is saddening that Mr Tshiololi, like several former civil servants from the defunct Venda administration, passed away while still awaiting justice, even after successfully obtaining the assistance and intervention of an independent constitutional institution,” said Mkhwebane.
HERO MADALA TJ BURIED Some of the family members hold the coffin of TshiololiPhoto by Silas Nduvheni.
Speaker after speaker described the late Tshimangadzo Tshiololi (75), better known as TJ, as a giant tree that had fallen.
They said many people still need his shade for a better life.
Tshiololi was the chairman of the Vhembe Concerned Pensioners, a group that is fighting to retain the pension of the former Venda government employees, also called “Dabalorivhuwa”.
He was buried in his village of Mulenzhe, outside Thohoyandou, on Saturday.
His memorial service was held on Friday under strict Covid-19 regulations, where only family members and close relatives were allowed to bid him farewell.
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has offered her condolences to the family of a man who has died without a resolution to a 12-year pension dispute affecting dozens of former employees of the former Venda homeland.
Makhosandile Zulu Tshimangadzo Tshiololi alleged that the Government Employees Pension Fund and national Treasury had acted improperly during the privatisation of the Venda Pension Fund. Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. Picture: Jacques Nelles
Tshimangadzo Tshiololi, who was part of the Vhembe Concerned Pensioners group, died on Tuesday night “while awaiting justice despite two public protector reports in which findings were made and remedial action was taken in their favour”.
In a statement, Mkhwebane said Tshiololi “joins several of his colleagues who have passed on penniless” without a resolution to their dispute.
Tshiololi and two of his colleagues approached the then public protector, advocate Lawrence Mushwana, in 2008 on behalf of the Vhembe Concerned Pensioners group, alleging that the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF)