The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) notes the suspension of the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner, Mr. Teboho Maruping. The Federation remains deeply concerned by the challenges experienced by thousands of workers when applying for their funds from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF). We are deeply angered that despite COSATU raising the alarm with the Department of Employment and Labour on the state of the UIF since 2020, issues have still not been resolved.
Whilst the Commissioner has been placed on leave to allow further investigations into the infamous R5 billion Thuja Capital scandal, the challenges at the UIF go far deeper than a single rotten deal.
Employers struggle to register their employees online. Workers battle to submit and receive the funds. Workers are forced to queue for days on end at UIF offices across the country. Bureaucracy stifles many company applications for Temporary Employee Relief Scheme financing. UIF investments that are legally bound to ensure the sustainability of the Fund and boost its capacity to provide relief to workers needing it as well as to spur economic growth and job creation; are routinely in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, namely looting and embezzlement. The UIF’s proposed solution to simply extend office hours from 07:30 to 16h:00 will not resolve these deep-seated crises.
It is precisely for these reasons that COSATU and Organised Business at Nedlac have previously made the call for the UIF to be placed under administration. The Federation has not seen any indication of a credible turnaround plan to convince us that earlier calls to place the UIF under administration do not remain valid. If anything, the continued crises at the UIF make this call more urgent.
The Federation is deeply aggrieved that despite repeatedly raising these crises with the Department since 2020, little progress, if any, has been made to resolve them. COSATU is dismayed that all the Department has been able to offer social partners at Nedlac on a plan to cleanse and modernise the UIF’s archaic and corruption-prone systems is a vague PowerPoint presentation claiming that its turnaround, along with that of its similarly chaotic twin, the Compensation Fund for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Fund (CF), will take another three years at a cost of R252 million in consultancy fees.
Workers have waited long enough for the Department and the UIF, as well as CF, to get their act together. There is no rational excuse as to why their overhauling and modernisation should take another three years nor why a consultancy bill of R252 million should be incurred when such capacity can be sourced for minimal cost, if any, inhouse from the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) and the South African Revenue Service (SARS).
If we are to ensure the UIF is cleansed of the cancers of corruption, then the President, Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, must issue a proclamation mandating the Special Investigating Unit to investigate the entire Fund, and in particular its unlisted investments. GTAC and SARS must be tasked to step in and put in place modern and transparent application and payment systems fit for the 21st century that will ensure employers can register their staff and workers can receive their funds with ease. It is time government acted and did so decisively.Issued by COSATU
Matthew Parks(COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)
Cell: 082 785 0687
Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za