The North Gauteng High Court ruled it would allow two applicants to represent an estimated 66 000 retired Transnet workers in charges the company's pension funds underpaid them for more than a decade.

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An attorney for the group, Wynanda Coetzee, said the pensioners were not receiving market-related payments, with some getting as little as R1 ($0.09) a month.

"It's all about funds that might have been illegally plundered from the pension funds, putting them in a position not to give market and or inflation-related pensions to the pensioners," she said.

The R80-billion ($7.5 billion) lawsuit could be launched by the end of the year, Coetzee said.

Transnet said it would comment after reviewing the court ruling.