UIF apologises for break in network which delayed claims

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has apologised for a break in its network which as a result, affected plans to capture May Covid-19 Temporary Employer Relief Scheme (TERS) online applications.

The system, which was meant to go live on Tuesday 26 May, could not run due to a damaged fibre link between the UIF’s offices and the State Information and Technology Agency (Sita).

UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping said: “We would like to apologise to all our stakeholders and particularly our clients for this unfortunate turn of events and the resultant delays. We are doing everything in our power to ensure that the problem is resolved today so that we can start processing May applications immediately. The fault of connectivity in Pretoria is due to a damaged fibre cable that links the UIF to the SITA’s datacenter.” 

The UIF pledges to restore the link as well as make attempts to attend to the backlog.

“The UIF’s ICT system development team is on standby to ensure that as soon as the connectivity is re-established the system goes live.

“We have received an avalanche of complaints because of this and we understand how this could be frustrating to our clients and stakeholders. I would like to assure each and every one of those who have been negatively affected that this was beyond our hands but will try to make up. It should be noted that in the last two months we have had peak traffic as a result of our lockdown relief benefits.

“In general we have managed to keep our heads above water under those circumstances and there is no reason why we will not push ourselves to do our utmost to catch up,” Maruping said.

A public announcement will be made once the system is restored.

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