Your retirement fund may be breaking the law and all the decisions it makes may be invalid.
Shock figures from the Financial Service Board (FSB), the watchdog of the financial services industry, show that two out of five funds still do not conform to legal requirements which give members a better say in how their funds should be managed.
The R542 billion retirement fund industry has had two-and-a-half years to get its act together and implement amendments to the Pension Funds Act which state that you and your fellow retirement fund members have the right to elect at least half the trustees on your fund's board.
The deadline for funds to meet these requirements is Tuesday. But with only days to go, 40 percent of funds have not yet complied with the law and the FSB is "very worried" about the situation.
If your fund has not implemented the amendments the consequences for you could be disastrous. If the board of your fund is not correctly constituted its decisions will not be legally valid.
Dube Tshidi, who heads up the pensions department at the FSB, says the goal of the amendments was to beef up consumer protection.
He says he hopes that now that members have better representation on the board of funds, they will keep an eye on how their funds are managed.
Funds which have not complied with the new rules by Tuesday must apply to the FSB for exemption or for an extension and must give reasons for needing either of these.
Tshidi says that few applications for exemptions and extensions have been received.
The law does not specify a penalty for retirement funds which do not conform to the law but Tshidi says the introduction of large penalties is a possibility.
The problem, however, is the members may end up paying the penalties, because the money would come out of the retirement fund's pool.
The amendment to the Pension Funds Act states that every fund must have a board of at least four members, at least 50 percent of whom must be elected by the fund's members.
You are a member if:
* You are contributing to the fund;
* You are receiving a pension from the fund;
* You are the dependent of a deceased member of the fund; or
* You no longer work for the company but have left your money in the fund until retirement.
The requirement that members must elect at least half of the board must be incorporated into the rules of your retirement fund. The rules must also include details of the number of board members that members can elect, the election procedure, the procedure for filling vacancies on the board, the procedure to be followed at board meetings and the manner in which decisions are reached as well as the circumstances in which a board member may be removed and the procedure to the followed to do this.