SPECIAL PENSIONS AMENDMENT BILL TABLED IN PARLIAMENT

SPECIAL PENSIONS AMENDMENT BILL TABLED IN PARLIAMENT

• 18 March 2026
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Parliamentary papers have confirmed the formal introduction in Parliament of a Special Pensions Amendment Bill. This follows the recent publication of a procedurally required pre-tabling explanatory summary. According to a memorandum on the Bill’s objects, it seeks to correct ‘misalignments’ identified during the 1996 Act’s implementation.

The Government Pensions Administration Agency (GPAA) website page on special pensions notes, among other things, that these are provided to ‘individuals who made sacrifices or served the public interest in establishing a democratic constitutional order in South Africa’. In that context, the Act goes some way towards addressing ‘the plight of those who lost the opportunity to provide for themselves in their retirement as they pursued freedom and a just society for all South Africans’.

As ‘non-contributory benefits’ funded by National Treasury and administered by the GPAA, special pensions are paid only to ‘deserving applicants’. To that end, the Bill seeks to:

• ‘allow persons who qualify for more than one benefit to be granted the greater benefit’, and
• provide for:
  • the retention of benefits determined before the lapsing of certain sections of the principal statute
  • ‘the right of a survivor to a survivor’s lump sum benefit under certain circumstances’
  • ‘a funeral benefit in line with (the 1996) Government Employees Pension Law
  • the ‘condonation of applications submitted after the (relevant) closing date’, and to provide for
  • ‘the reconsideration of a determination by the designated institution, if material facts that were not considered at the time of making the determination are provided on application’.

Please click the links below for more information:

• Bill
• parliamentary papers
• explanatory summary
• GPAA special pensions website page

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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