Dear Pension Fund Member

It was with much anticipation we listened to our Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana’s national budget speech yesterday. I am sure many of you are also listening to the news, and to various analysts to see how this would impact us. From a pensions’ perspective, there was a few changes and updates provided:

  • It was confirmed that we can expect the draft legislation regarding the two-pot system to be released for comment. Once the legislation has been finalised, we will provide you with all the details regarding the new pensions system.
  • The retirement fund tax table will change slightly from 1 March 2023.

Attached, you will find a document from AlexForbes summarising the above and other aspects as discussed in the budget speech.

Attached, you will also find the annual Policy Protection Rules Disclosures with regard to our Old Mutual Insurance policies. These are for your records only and require no action from you. The passwords to access the documents are 94495Sm2022/02 and 93893Sm2022/02 (capital S and small m (underlining for illustration only)).

As you are aware we called for nominations to fill a vacancy on the Board of Trustees as one of the Alternate member elected trustees have resigned. As a result of the nomination process Prof Kapil Moothi the nominated and agreed to fill this position. Prof Moothi is currently the head of the Chemical Engineering Department. We welcome Prof Moothi to the Board of Trustees and thank him for his willingness to serve the members of the pension fund.

“Kapil Moothi obtained a BSc in Chemical Engineering (2007), MSc in Chemical Engineering (2010) and PhD in Chemical Engineering (2014) from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS). A Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (PGDipHE), passed with distinction in 2017, was obtained from University of Johannesburg (UJ). The PGDipHE was done so as to improve his skills and knowledge in teaching, learning and assessment practices. From January 2013 – December 2015, he was a chemical engineer at Sasol (Sasolburg) involved in provision of technical plant support, monitoring and optimization of plant(s), small project(s) execution etc. Since January 2016, he has been employed in the Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Mining, Metallurgy and Chemical Engineering (SOMMCE), Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (FEBE) at UJ. Presently, as an Associate Professor and leader of the “Nanotechnology and Environmental Engineering” research group within the Department, his research is investigating the role of nanotechnology in environmental engineering for the treatment of air, water and wastewater. Prof Moothi is committed to his research supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” and SDG 12: “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”. He has attained various academic achievements and awards i.e. “Academic Excellence Scholarship” (2004), “Post Graduate Merit Award” (2008-2012), Golden Key International Honour Society Membership (2010) for being in the top 15% of academic achievers, and “DAAD-NRF In-Country Scholarship” (2011). In 2015, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research awarded him a “Green Talent – High Potential in Sustainable Development”. He was selected by a high-ranking jury of German experts, who applauded track record of successful research and combination of practical knowledge and innovative thinking in current project(s). In 2019, he was recognized in the “Education” category by the Mail & Guardian in their Top 200 Young South Africans list. He is actively involved in the mentoring and supervision of Honours and Masters students, PhD candidates as well as postdoctoral research fellows (PDRFs

He regularly servers as an external examiner for Masters dissertations and PhD theses as well as a peer reviewer for ISI journals,  for example, Nature Communications and Environmental Science and Pollution Research. In 2021, he was a grant recipient of the UJ Teaching Innovation Fund (TIF) as well as the Sasol-NRF University Collaborative Research Grant (2022 – 2025). Prof Moothi has authored/ co-authored peer-reviewed DHET-accredited publications, in leading international journals such as Langmuir, RSC Advances, Nature Scientific Reports, Carbon and Science of the Total Environment and has presented his research (oral and poster) at numerous local and international conferences since 2008.”

 

Investment Roadshows

Please note that our annual investment webinars will be held early next week – please click on the below links to join us! In case you miss them, we will send out the recording of the webinars shortly afterwards.

Morning Webinar: Monday 27 Feb 2023

10:00-11:30

Join Here: Click here to join the meeting

Afternoon Webinar: Tuesday 28 Feb 2023

12:00-13:30

Join here: Click here to join the meeting

As always – take care!

Kind regards

Evette

Principal Officer UJ Pension Funds