The Unemployment Insurance coverage Fund’s on-line companies have been down for weeks. And a courtroom interdict is stopping a brand new service supplier from stepping in.
UIF’s director for communications, Trevor Hattingh, stated the fund’s earlier service supplier has been the “greatest headache” throughout its 19 years of service.
On Monday, employment & labour minister Nomakhosazana Meth introduced the short-term disruption of UIF on-line platforms, together with uFiling, Unstructured Supplementary Service Knowledge, Digital Workplace and the UIF Covid-19 Ters methods.
“On 30 August 2024, the Pretoria excessive courtroom handed down a judgment on the matter of a service supplier that rendered on-line portal companies of UIF. The courtroom issued an interim interdict stopping, with fast impact, the brand new service supplier from rendering companies for the UIF on-line portal,” learn the assertion.
Hattingh stated the contract with the earlier service supplier ended on 18 August. As an alternative of renewing the contract, the UIF sought the companies of a brand new contractor.
“The previous service supplier is alleging of their courtroom papers, amongst different issues, that with out their companies we’d not have the ability to pay South Africans,” stated Hattingh.
uFiling
“The [old service provider] says that with out their system – the uFiling portal — we’d not have the ability to seize, adjudicate and pay folks. However the cost and adjudication system is separate from their uFiling system. So, they lied of their papers. That is all a tactic to create a panic in South Africa,” stated Hattingh.
The previous service supplier had additionally requested to be granted an extension, he stated.
GroundUp has not had a possibility but to research Hattingh’s claims. It additionally stays unclear to us why the system was down weeks earlier than the courtroom interdict.
In response to Hattingh, the most important problem they’ve had has been with uFiling, which is linked to the Digital Workplace system.
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“These are each offline now. These are the methods that got here with the previous service supplier that has interdicted us. They’ve been offering us with on-line upkeep assist for 19 years. And for 19 years our folks have been annoyed; for 19 years now we have had the most important headache,” stated Hattingh.
On Thursday, the uFiling homepage nonetheless had a “scheduled upkeep” message up, alerting customers that the system is offline and advising them to go to their “nearest labour centre to entry UIF companies”.
“Why would a service supplier whose contract is coming to an finish, come and pressure us? We’ve had sufficient issues. We don’t need [the old service provider] anymore. We’ve gone via an open tender which has been via the mandatory processes. They utilized along with different service suppliers and another person received the job this time round,” stated Hattingh.
Regardless of the web system being offline, Hattingh stated provisions had been made to make sure “all arms on decks” in any respect labour places of work.
The labour workplace on Plein Road in Cape City was busier than standard on Wednesday. We noticed folks being ushered to face in three traces. One line had about 30 girls holding small infants, some wrapped in thick blankets. A second line was for returning claimants, and the third had about 45 first-time claimants.
Sinazo Vele, from Khayelitsha, was holding her three-month-old daughter. She was on maternity depart and was there to assert her UIF.
“I received right here round 11am, but it surely appears just like the queues are shifting swiftly, so I don’t anticipate that I will likely be standing right here for a very long time,” stated Vele.
Contained in the workplace, the queues of individuals had been orderly, with some claimants sitting on benches. Many of the service factors had employees.
Hattingh stated that the place wanted, they had been contemplating extending working hours at among the division’s 126 labour centres throughout the nation to make sure that individuals are helped.
‘Blessing in disguise’
“This uFiling was so difficult that now that it’s not there, we’re working so significantly better. Possibly this complete factor was a blessing in disguise,” stated Hattingh.
He stated a crew had been tasked to work on the uFiling system to get the portal working as quickly as potential.
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