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The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has since March 2020 date paid out an amount of R9.3 billion to 774370 workers in KwaZulu-Natal province as part of its Covid-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (Covid-19 TERS).

A separate R2.4 billion was disbursed by the UIF to 272 889 workers and their beneficiaries as normal benefits, including unemployment, maternity, illness and death, in the 2022/2023 financial year.

Furthermore, to this the UIF also paid out an amount of R17.7 million to 5571 workers in the province through the Workers Affected By Unrest (WABU) temporary financial relief scheme.

Details of the various payments to KwaZulu-Natal based clients were revealed today, 16 August 2023, by UIF Commissioner, Teboho Maruping at a media briefing that took place at the Royal Hotel in Durban Central. 

The R9.3 billion disbursed to workers arose from 34 840 Covid-19 TERS applications the UIF received from employers, according to Maruping. 

The Commissioner said the top 10 sectors that received the lion's share of the R9.3 billion are Trade, Personal, Construction, Iron, Professional, Textile, Air, Entertainment, Food and Education.

The UIF has to date paid out an overall R64 billion to at least 5 million workers across the country through Covid-19 TERS. 

Mr Smiso Nkosi, a Manager in the UIF Commissioner's office, informed journalists that Forensic Auditors of the UIF are continuing to audit companies in the province as well as around the country, to ensure that the correct amounts of Covid-19 TERS monies were paid over to workers at the right time.

A total of R2.6 billion has been recovered by the UIF through phases one and two of the Fund’s “follow the money” project which is auditing companies that benefited from Covid-19 TERS. The audits have found various instances of fraud related to employers who applied for ghost employees, had applications with inflated salaries, who made applications for terminated employees and who made applications whilst being allowed to operate as essential services during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Nkosi said measures are being implemented to deal with employers who refused to cooperate with “follow the money" auditors. These include:

•        Referral of cases to the Special Investigating Unit and Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (HAWKS) for criminal investigation;

•        Refunding of all Covid-19 TERS funds;

•        Blocking of employers from the UIF's service offerings; and

•        Blacklisting of employers from doing business with the UIF.

Monwabisi Mangcotywa from the UIF's Risk and Fraud Unit in KwaZulu-Natal province revealed that more than 20 suspects had been arrested through joint investigations for Covid-19 TERS-related fraud. Mangcotywa said the matters are all still before the courts. 

According to Mangcotywa, the UIF is taking disciplinary action against officials who are implicated in fraud cases as well as those who are alleged to have solicited bribes from clients to expedite claims at labour centres in the province. A total of officials were undergoing disciplinary cases for fraud in KwaZulu-Natal. Of that, four officials were dismissed, while another two were arrested. The remaining cases are still pending. 

Clients or members of the public can report any corrupt activities or fraud on the UIF Fraud Hotline: 0800 601 148 or to the Department of Employment & Labour hotline: 0860 666 883.

With regards to job creation and preservation UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping said 7 564 jobs were preserved by the UIF in quarter 1 during the 2023/2024 financial year through the Labour Activation Programme (LAP).

The UIF is an entity of the Department of Employment and Labour, mandated to provide short-term financial relief benefits to qualifying and contributing workers and their beneficiaries.

Issued by The Department of Employment and Labour