HAVE YOU BEEN ****** BY THE DEPARTMENT AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY QUEENSTOWN?

My father started working for the Department of Agriculture and Forestry in the early 1980s as a general labor in the Eastern Cape, Gcuwa contributedin his pension fund to the Department of Agricultureand Forestry. In 2000 they were transferred from the Department of Agriculture and Forestry to the Department of Education where he started contributing to the GEPF. He unfortunately passed away in 2008 and the GEPF only paid out towards the end of 2015 his contributions towards pension and told us because my father had been with them for less than 10 years my mother could not claim for the spousal pension support. They advised us to submit a claim with the Department of Agriculture and Forestry in Queenstown.

My mother submitted her claim for the pension fund with the Department of Agriculture, this was in 2010 - 2011. We were living in Cape Town, she would borrow money just to go to the Queenstown offices to sign and submit her paperwork at some point she even missed her return bus because she was running around Queenstown certifying documents and had to borrow more money to book another bus back to Cape Town. They told her she would be contacted.We had gone through the same thing with the Department of Education.

When months passed with any correspondence from the Department of Agriculture and Forestry she called and was told that because of the volumes of applications there weren't sufficient funds in the Department and that she would hear from the Department of Agriculture and Forestry should there be any developments. She kept calling until she got tired around 2014-2015.

I decided to take this up on the 28-03-2025 I called Ms Nonzwakazi Msi from the Department of Agriculture and she asked me to write an email with my father's details ie his full names and surnames,ID number, pension number, she forwarded the email and assigned the query to Queenstown to Ms Sindy Kali who called me on the 02-04- 2025 saying I should contact the Department of Forestry, when I sent her a payslip on whatsapp from 1992 showing my father's contributions towards pension to the Department of Agriculture and Forestry she then changed her tune advised that I contact the Department of Education because the pension number belongs to the Department of Education. I queried how my father got a pension number from the Department of Education in 1992 yet he was only transferred in 2000 and she had no answer to that. I then requested that she send me an email stating what she was advising me instead of whispering to me on Voicenotes via whatsapp so I could take it to Forestry and she agreed. While awaiting an email from Ms Sindy Kali, I received a call from Mr Lusanda Xesi from the Department of Agriculture in Queenstown offices. When I told him I was awaiting an email from Ms Sindy Kali [it never came], he said he was assigned by Ms Kali to help me and asked if I have any documentation other than my fathers names, identity numbers and pension number to prove my father's contributions. I provided him with my father's details and the pension number I found in one of his Payslips, he told me they could not find anything on my father. He sent the information to Sita to further check and told me he was new on the job hardly has 2 years working there so i asked him why he was assigned to my query he rep**** they are all new in the office. I had to also ask him to stop corresponding with me via Whatsapp and send me an email with the answers I am looking for. On the 22-04-2025 He sent me an email told me he sent the information to SITA and the response was:

" Eventually they responded with the requested printouts for Mr. M. Saleni, however please be informed that there were no contributions made or deducted from Mr. M Saleni for the period in question for ease reference see the attached printouts from Sita and the pay slip for the contribution commencement date to GEPF.

The office made every effort in ensuring that you're assisted for we no longer have access to the employee for he was transferred to and terminated services with department of Education, so procedurally  it was supposed to be the  Department of Education that contacts us on your behalf, however we did our best to ensure that you are assisted."

WHERE IS MY FATHER'S MONEY??