UIF applicants are turned away

Unemployment Insurance Fund recipients at the Randburg UIF branch are being turned away, due to their systems being offline.

According to applicants waiting outside the offices, the Randburg branch has been offline for several months and some beneficiaries say they have been waiting for their payments, with some adding they do not even know the status of their application.

A woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that she was at the UIF offices for the fourth time and each time she was turned away. “I have to use public transport to get here and I’m running out of money to keep coming back here, I need my application sorted out soon,” she said.

Thomas Maimela, who has waited to find out the status of his application since January, accused the staff at the Randburg UIF branch of starting work at 9.30am despite the long queues of people waiting outside their offices.

He added that the letter that he was given the last time he visited the office stipulated that he return today, yet he was still turned away. He pointed out that the employees from the branch could have called them in order to save them a trip.

“If I knew this would happen to me I would not have come here today,” he lamented. “Even when we call, the phones just ring and ring so we are forced to come here,” he said.

When officials at the branch were asked to give comment on the situation, they refused.

Chief Director from the Gauteng Department of Labour, Kenny Flick said they were aware of the situation at the Randburg offices but refuted that they had been offline for months – saying that they had only been offline for one week.

“Our technicians are currently busy sorting out the problem and we expect to be back online within a day or so,” Flick said. He admitted that despite an application’s five week turn-around period there were situations that took longer than expected due to problems that arose with employers.

He added that applicants should call the hotline or request to see a manager if they were not helped timely.

Details: Gauteng Department of Labour Gauteng Head Office 011 853 030.