‘Simply unacceptable’ — tens of thousands left in the lurch with UIF online system still down after six weeks

The current online screen of the UIF. (Image: Supplied)

4 Oct 2024

Cosatu calls on labour minister to intervene, while fund says it has made a “breakthrough” in terms of alternative measures, and will make an announcement “very soon”.

More than six weeks ago, Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) online services went down.

The fund says it has made a “breakthrough” in terms of alternative measures, and will make an announcement “very soon”.

Meanwhile, the employers and employees across the country who relied on the service have been left frustrated and severely inconvenienced.

On 23 August 2024, Acting Judge Richard Mkhabela granted an interim interdict at the North Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria, in a matter involving company Internet Filing, which was rendering online portal services to the UIF.

The interim interdict prevented, with immediate effect, a new service provider – AfriNova Digital – from rendering services for the UIF online portal.

Since then, the UIF online platforms, including uFiling, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, Virtual Office, as well as the UIF Covid-19 Ters systems, have been frozen.

On 11 July, a service-level agreement was signed between the UIF and AfriNova, but its signing was not disclosed to Internet Filing at a meeting it held with representatives of the Department of Employment and Labour on 15 July.

Internet Filing then launched an urgent application on 13 August.

AfriNova commenced work on 19 August.

The current online screen of the UIF. (Image: Supplied)

Four days later the interim interdict was granted, stopping all work.

Judge Mkhabela said Internet Filing had a prima facie right to have its contract adjudicated fairly and that it had asserted that the awarding of the contract to AfriNova had flaunted procurement regulations.

A week after the interim interdict was granted, UIF spokesperson Trevor Hattingh said a team had been tasked to work on the uFiling system to get the portal operating within about two weeks.

He said the fund was aware of the “frustration” it was causing and “we are really sorry”.

“I will say we have made a breakthrough in terms of alternative measures and we are due for an announcement very soon,” said Hattingh.

Cosatu calls for intervention

Trade union the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called on Minister of Employment and Labour Nomakhosazana Meth “to intervene and take the necessary steps to ensure that uFiling is functional again”.

“UIF is a contributory social security fund, and having it offline for this long is simply unacceptable,” it said.

On Tuesday, Cosatu said the UIF’s extension of operating hours at its centres to help with the workload “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.”

Cosatu parliamentary coordinator Matthew Parks told GroundUp: “A lot of the UIF problems are anchored around the IT systems: employers struggle to register their staff, workers struggle to apply for their monies, and UIF offices in the country have queues like election day.

“Workers contribute to UIF; the government does not contribute a single cent to it. Workers are entitled to their monies, and the government should administer it efficiently,” said Parks.

Meanwhile, on 13 September Minister Meth announced the precautionary suspension of UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping, who is facing corruption charges involving a R5-billion deal. DM

First published by GroundUp.

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Cosatu calls for intervention