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Old Mutual faces social media storm and boycott calls over claim it withheld pension payout in defiance of court order

Details

OldMutualFin24 reports that Old Mutual is facing a deluge of boycott calls after a social media storm erupted over its alleged refusal to pay out the pension savings of a client in defiance of a court order.

A seemingly routine customer complaint about a pension payout on X (formerly Twitter) went viral, garnering over 1.3 million retweets. The boycott calls stemmed from a 5 March post on X by Sebabatso Molefi, who alleged that Old Mutual was defying a court order to release her mother's pension. Images purporting to be the court order dated 14 December 2023 seemingly instruct Old Mutual to make payments to a plaintiff. The snowballing PR disaster gained further traction as other social media users began recounting similar problems with Old Mutual, including Grammy Award-winning DJ Zakes Bantwini, who alleged his mother was paid out only R380 in life cover when she died. Old Mutual was even forced to relive the indignity suffered by two women in 2019 who resorted to taking the corpse of a deceased family member to an Old Mutual branch as proof of death. As hordes of social media users responded with threats to move their business to rival firms, Old Mutual was forced into damage control mode. The Old Mutual SA X-account responded by saying that what it called "The Molefi issue" was a confidential and private matter involving the private financial affairs of two individuals, meaning it could not comment publicly. But it apologised over the handling of the matter. It added that it was investigating ways to solve the impasse and would be meeting with the Molefi family this week.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Garth Theunissen at Fin24


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