SA man living in Netherlands in legal battle to access almost R790k retirement savings

Dutch-based South African wins appeal for R789,000 retirement annuity.

The Financial Services Tribunal has set aside a ruling that blocked a Dutch-based South African from accessing his retirement annuity benefit of almost R790,00 finding that the Pension Funds Adjudicator had failed to properly consider key evidence concerning his tax residency .

The tribunal ordered that the complaint by Barend Christoffel du Plessis be sent back to the adjudicator for reconsideration after finding serious shortcomings in the way his claim for an early withdrawal was assessed.

Du Plessis’s member share in the Discovery Investment Retirement Annuity Fund stood at over R789,949.64 in July 2025. He joined the fund in October 2014 after over R514,000 was transferred from the Du Pont Pension Fund, with no further contributions made to the investment.

The man has lived outside South Africa since 2004 or 2005, acquired Dutch citizenship in 2011, had been registered in the Netherlands, spent a period in China, worked in Denmark and had not maintained a SA bank account for about two decades.

The dispute arose from Du Plessis’s attempt to withdraw his retirement annuity before reaching retirement age on the basis that he had ceased to be a South African resident.

Born in Queenstown, Du Plessis acquired Dutch citizenship in August 2011 and provided a residential address in Veldhoven in the Netherlands.

In November 2023, he submitted a claim for a pre-retirement withdrawal, selecting “emigration” as the reason. The fund subsequently requested additional documentation but closed the withdrawal case after the outstanding information was not received.

He tried again in November 2024, submitting an affidavit, a Dutch population register extract, a certified copy of his Netherlands passport and a Danish annual tax assessment.

In January 2025, the administrator informed Du Plessis that several documents were still required.

These included a certificate of residence from the tax authority in his country of residence, a passport showing his date of departure from South Africa, proof of a South African blocked rand bank account and confirmation from SARS of the date on which he ceased to be a South African tax resident.

Du Plessis subsequently complained to the adjudicator, arguing that he had been trying to withdraw his benefit since 2023 and that the fund had failed to properly consider the evidence he had supplied.

He also argued that some of the documents demanded by the fund were no longer available or could not reasonably be obtained because he hasn't lived in South Africa in two decades.

The fund, however, maintained that the documentation was necessary to obtain a SARS tax directive for members who had ceased to be South African residents.