Pretoria - The North Gauteng High Court has ordered the Registrar of Pension Funds to reinstate 25 provident funds that were cancelled, leaving beneficiaries in limbo.

Up to 90 pension funds, estimated to be worth over R82m, were cancelled between 2008 and 2013. The pensions, known as "orphan funds" were considered by the Financial Services Board (FSB) to be inactive.

Judge Joe Maumela ordered the reinstatement of funds with effect from March 14 2018.

The court did not provide details on what action would be taken regarding the rest of the funds affected by the mass cancellation.

Liberty Group, which administered the pension funds, had stated that the deregistration was erroneous, blaming the move on a technical glitch.

A group representing the affected funds, the Unpaid Benefits Campaign, said it hoped the order will halt further deregistration of provident pension funds.

“We welcome the order but also concerned that the judge did not give clarity on what would happen to the rest of the funds that were left out,” spokesperson Naadira Munshi said.

“We hope this will stop the financial services board from going further with  more cancellations of pension funds,” she added.

The "orphan funds" system is said to have been caused by a shift from single employer funds in the 1990s to large umbrella pension funds.

Reacting to the court order, the Financial Services Board said in a statement Liberty had provided the registrar with “incorrect information” leading to the cancellation of the funds.