The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has appointed auditors to investigate employers accused of taking payouts meant for workers.
The UIF says it has over 725,000 pending claims, due to a lack of documentation from employers. The entity also says it has paid R21-billion to 3,6 million workers since April from the COVID-19 TERS relief payment.
Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, said in a statement, “It is alleged that there are companies that have not paid the workers what is due to them. We are aware of some companies allegedly loaning employees the money and that is not legal. We are also aware of other companies that are allegedly paying part of the money and not the full amount, as well as companies using the money for something else other than the intended purpose. If all these allegations are true, we appeal to companies to do the right thing still,”
Meanwhile, UIF Commissioner, Teboho Maruping said the UIF will audit the companies’ books.
He says, “We’ve added a clause that we are going to audit their books. We’re going to go into their bank account to confirm if money is supposed to go where it’s supposed to go. If that has not happened, we may need to take them to court, we may even have to blacklist some of these employers or even take them to court to be imprisoned,”
He says the UIF will be introducing a fraud system where the public can report such cases directly.
