Woman wins legal battle to exclude late husband's girlfriend from his over R560,000 Eskom pension fund
Z Madlala was a member of Eskom Pension and Provident Fund until his passing in December 2022. He was married to LA Magoso.
After his death, R560,000 became available for his beneficiaries. Although Madlala had nominated his wife to receive 80% of his pension fund, the Eskom pension fund board decided to allocate Magoso 28%.
The money was further shared among Magoso's five children, one of Madlala's children from a previous relationship, and his girlfriend, Eslina Ngomane who also received 28%.
Aggrieved by the decision, Magoso approached the Pension Fund Adjudicator (PFA) seeking to overturn Eskom's decision.
In her appeal to the PFA, Magoso highlighted that Ngomane was unknown to the Madlala family and requested an investigation into the legitimacy of the beneficiary nomination form. Given that this form was completed just eight months before Madlala's death, during a period when he was unwell, she raised doubts over its validity.
The Eskom provident fund stated that its decision was based on three claims received after Madlala's death: one from Magoso on behalf of herself and her five children with the deceased, a second from Ngomane, and a third from Madlala's other three children.
The fund submitted that in determining whether or not to include Ngomane, the board considered the fact that she was 50, she was unemployed at the time of the investigation, Madlala nominated her to receive 10% of the death benefit, and she also stated in an affidavit that she was dependent on Madlala for maintenance and support.
The fund stated that considering her age, her earning potential was very slim and she had more than 15 years before she could qualify to receive an old age grant. Furthermore, she qualified as the deceased's factual dependent, and it was necessary to consider her in the allocation of the death benefit.
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