Abstract

This article advocates for critical legislative changes in the Divorce Act 70 of 1979 and other pension law related statutes regarding retirement fund members savings that are vulnerable to be shared upon divorce. It argues that the phrase ‘pension interest’ should be replaced by the phrase ‘retirement savings’ to avoid unnecessary confusion that arises in the categorisation and quantification of the amount that the non-member spouse should be paid when he or she divorces a retirement fund member. This article also argues for the deletion of the deeming requirements in section 7(7) of the Divorce Act. Further that there is no need for some special legislative mechanism which empowers non-member spouses to claim portions of their member spouses’ retirement savings, as this amounts to an unnecessary complication in the law regulating the sharing of retirement savings when the parties divorce.