The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is deeply aggrieved that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF)’s online system, uFiling, has been offline for a month and yet there has been no indication of when it will be functional again.

Users wanting to utilise the platform since 30 August have been met with a message that says the uFiling system is offline due to planned maintenance. This, however, is not accurate because the real reason the digital platform is not available is due to a contractor that successfully interdicted another from rendering the same service it previously provided to UIF. The original contractor’s agreement with UIF has expired, and a new one has been signed with the interdicted service provider.    

The North Gauteng High Court granted the interdict in favour of the original contractor and instructed the UIF to submit documents. The UIF previously confirmed it had submitted the documents, the but the interdict remains in place a month later.

The UIF Commissioner, Teboho Maruping, meanwhile has been suspended by Minister of Employment and Labour, Nomakhosazana Meth, for his alleged involvement in an irregular R5 billion jobs scheme that the fund entered into with Thuja Capital.

To mitigate the inconvenience, UIF extended its operating hours with some centres even opening on Saturdays. But this has made little difference to employers who have been using the uFiling platform to declare and pay UIF contributions on behalf of their employees. Companies have now been asked to email UI-19 forms for each of their employees, resulting in a huge amount of paperwork. Alternatively, employers can visit the nearest UIF centre, join the long queues spiralling out the building and cross their fingers they make it inside before they are cut off and told to come back the next day.

Changing how a company declares its UIF contributions is no simple matter as it involves changing processes and will likely result in extra costs. Plus, only payments done via uFiling reflect immediately. Employers have complained that UIF takes too long to allocate EFT payments.  

On the other hand, when visiting UIF offices to claim their unemployment benefits, workers who have lost their jobs are forced to brave long queues, endure the elements be it hot, cold or rainy weather, and hope that they will not be turned away because they did not bring a photocopy of their ID.

UIF officials do not seem to comprehend that for a worker who has lost their job, obtaining taxi fare to travel to the UIF centre could prove challenging, consequently they have no qualms telling people to “come back tomorrow.”

Workers do not deserve to be treated this way, especially when they are at their most vulnerable after having lost employment, highly pregnant or having just given birth. It is for this reason that two weeks ago, COSATU wrote to the Acting Commissioner Judith Kumbi, asking when uFiling would be back online. To date, we haven’t received a response or acknowledgement of the email.

As a result, the Federation is calling on Minister Meth to intervene and take the necessary steps to ensure that uFiling is functional again and serving the people of South Africa because UIF is a contributory social security fund, and having it be offline for this long is simply unacceptable.

Issued by COSATU

Jan Mahlangu(COSATU Retirement Funds Coordinator)

Mobile: 076 587 2023 

Email:mahlangu@cosatu.org.za

Or 

Zanele Sabela(COSATU National Spokesperson)

Mobile: 079 287 5788 / 077 600 6639

Email: zanele@cosatu.org.za