The Adjudicator

Senior Legal Advisor

Is an admitted attorney with over a decade of experience in the legal and financial services sectors. She is currently a Senior Legal Advisor and  also serves as a Deputy Information Officer at the Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of the Witwatersrand, a Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Investment Planning from the University of Free State. She has also completed specialised certifications in Pension Funds Law and Governance and Ethics.

She has extensive experience in the retirement fund industry having held various positions as a legal advisor for funds administrator and served as a board member in some retirement funds.

Senior Assistant Adjudicator – Team leader

Lehlohonolo joined the OPFA from private legal practice, where he practiced as an attorney. He brought to OPFA more than 20 years of post-admission experience in the Regulatory Environment and more than 15 years experience as a Senior and Executive Manager from various organizations, including The KZN Department of Economic Development, Tourism (Senior Manager: Consumer Protection Services), The Community Schemes Ombud Services (Provincial Ombudsman for KZN, Mpumalanga and Free State), and recently National Consumer Tribunal (Registrar).

Lehlohonolo is the responsible Manager for Team 1 in the Case Management Unit. His duties include screening and allocation of new files from NCU and ER to Case Officers in the team. He also has the responsibility of reviewing draft determinations from Professionals for quality control before submissions to the Deputy Pension Funds Adjudicator. He is also a member of the OPFA Management Committee

Deputy Information Officer

Contact Number: (012) 748 4026
Email Address: Nondumiso.ntshangase@pfa.org.za
Postal Address: PO Box 580, Menlyn, 0063
Street Address: 41 Matroosberg Road, Ashlea Gardens, Pretoria, 0181

Deputy Pension Funds Adjudicator

Naheem Essop is an attorney with over 16 years of experience in retirement fund law. After practicing for 9 years, including representing the successful party in the landmark case Natal Joint Municipal Pension Fund v Endumeni Municipality, Naheem joined the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and the Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator (OPFA).

At the FSCA, he contributed to key regulatory measures, including Guidance Notice 8 of 2018 on Default Regulations and Directive PF No. 8 on the prohibition of accepting gratification. As Senior Legal Advisor at OPFA, Naheem provided legal support to the team drafting determinations and advised on governance and regulatory issues.

He also served as an alternate trustee of the FSCA Pension Fund until 31 July 2023, gaining valuable experience in fund governance. Naheem was appointed Deputy Pension Funds Adjudicator, effective 1 August 2023, and remains committed to ensuring fair treatment for retirement fund members.

Executive Head of Corporate Services
and Chief Financial Officer

Bulelani Makunga is a servant leader with more than a decade of public sector experience in financial leadership,strategy, governance, risk, and reporting. He is an award winning CFO who is resolute about clean governance, strategic resource deployment and optimisation, and value creation. He has achieved 6 clean audit outcomes in his tenure as a CFO.

He is committed to sustainable outcomes and serves as a Board Member and Chairperson of the Transformation Subcommittee at the Financial Sector Conduct Authority Pension Fund. He is a versatile leader that is outcome-driven, people-oriented and has extensive experience in leading corporate services functions. He is an ex-officio member of the Audit, Risk, Remuneration and Social and Ethics governance committees since 2018. He is an accomplished accountant, an MBA holder and a SAICA 2022 Top 35 under 35 CA(SA).

As a leader and professional in the public sector, he believes that citizens deserve well-run public institutions to provide them with an opportunity to self-determine and efficient financial resource allocation and clean governance are a critical prerequisite.

Team Leader (Case Management Team 2)

The Pension Funds Adjudicator appointed him as the Senior Assistant Adjudicator: Team Leader, effective 01 June 2021.

He holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Venda and a Postgraduate Diploma in Compliance Management from the University of Johannesburg.

He has extensive investigation experience from the Special Investigating Unit. He worked as an Adjudicator in the non-contributory pension benefits component at the National Treasury. He has experience in managing appeal boards/tribunals at the Government Pensions Administration Agency, where he worked as Manager of appeals (Special/Medical/Military Veterans Pensions).

Team Leader (Case Management Team 2)

Silas Mothupi started working at the OPFA on 1 November 2006. He rose through the ranks from being an Assistant Adjudicator to becoming a Team Leader on 1 March 2020, a position he holds to date.

He supervises a case management team consisting of 11 staff members: 4 Case Officers, 5 Professionals, 1 Admin Assistant, and 1 Intern.
He holds an LLB from the former Vista University and an LLM from Unisa. Additionally, he has completed a Business Acumen Programme at the University of Stellenbosch.

ICT & Library Senior Manager

Clement Manenzhe oversees and manages the ICT and Library functions at the OPFA, ensuring seamless integration of technology and information resources to support the OPFA’s strategic goals.

He holds a degree in Information Systems and boasts over 19 years of experience in the ever-evolving field of Information and Communication Technology. With more than a decade dedicated to managerial roles in both outsourced and in-house ICT environments, he has successfully led initiatives across public and private sectors.

Early Resolution Manager

Lalita Jadoonandan holds a BA (Law) and LLB degrees. Her career in the retirement fund industry began at Momentum in 1989. She then moved on to Liberty Life and subsequently to Ginsburg Malan and Carsons, which was later taken over by Alexander Forbes. After working at Alexander Forbes for a few years, she transitioned to Sage Life, which was eventually acquired by Momentum. Before this acquisition, she had already moved to the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund.

In 2017, she joined the OPFA as a Team Leader. After four years of leading one of the case management teams, she resigned and rejoined in 2021 as the Early Resolution Manager. In her current role, she is responsible for closing out-of-jurisdiction matters and matters resolved by the funds to the complainant’s satisfaction.

New Complains Unit (NCU) Supervisor

Wilana Groenewald is an admitted attorney with 22 years of work experience, 19 of which have been in a managerial position.

She strives for work satisfaction and perfection, aiming to serve others to the best of her capability and to lead by example. She seeks to inspire others and assist them in excelling in their roles. She is passionate about service delivery and ensuring smooth operations.

The NCU department, which she oversees, receives, registers, and assesses all new complaints lodged with their office against pension funds registered under the Pension Funds Act, Act 24 of 1956. If a complaint falls within the OPFA’s jurisdiction, it is registered and further investigated for Conciliation and/or Adjudication purposes. If a complaint does not fall within the OPFA’s jurisdiction, the complainant is referred to the correct entity with appropriate reasons.

She is part of the Senior Management team, reporting to the Deputy Pension Funds Adjudicator.