The EFF on Thursday is vowing to shut down the Department of Labour and Sassa officers in the Pretoria CBD if their demands are not met.
The party claimed the labour department was failing millions of workers in the country as millions of South Africans have not received their R350 unemployment insurance fund (UIF) and temporary employer/employee relief scheme (Ters) payouts yet.
“The Ters monies are not reaching our workers. Every day we receive a stream of complaints of people crying over Ters and Sassa monies,” said Head of the EFF labour desk, Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi.
The party gathered at Church Square, along with The Tshwane Regional Chairperson Moafrika Mabogwana, Tshwane Regional Treasurer Obakeng Ramabodu, head of the EFF labour desk, Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi, and workers of Servest, Cell C, Swissport, Tshwane varsity lodge and LSC and labour.
The EFF handed over an memorandum of their grievances to the Department of Employment and Labour, and South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) offices in Pretoria CBD.
She claimed that the Department of Labour was allowing companies to claim on behalf of their workers.
On Wednesday Mkhaliphi and EFF leader Julius Malema visited companies which had claimed Ters monies for their employees.
She said the workers at one company told them that the company had claimed the Ters money, but had not paid them.
“The way the companies and labour department are treating the workers is unjust as many have children to feed and basic services to pay for.”
She claimed many companies were using the workers details such as ID numbers and tax numbers to claim for Ters, however, the money was being used to enrich the companies and not to benefit the workers.
“We demand a list of these companies that have claimed for Ters,” she said.
“We are sick and tired of corruption.”
Mkhalipi alleged the Department of Labour inspectors were not carrying out their mandate to ensure the Ters monies were being disbursed accordingly to employees.
“These inspectors come to these companies once and do jigga jigga and afterwards vanish, while workers are left stranded.”
She said she did not understand why the labour department’s senior officials were allowing this to happen.
“We (EFF) have received about 10 000 calls, along with WhatsApp messages on a daily basis over Ters complaints,” she said.
“This is not our job – it is the job of the labour department.”
She also alleged that during a visit to the UIF department’s call centre there were only 42 staff members on duty.
“Only 42 labour staff members are taking the entire countries calls,” she said.
“How can a national department operate with 42 staff?”
The list of demands include that a report be issued of all companies who defrauded the Ters system; that the Ters system be reopened as Covid-19 was still existent; a speedy resolution to all complaints laid by workers at the labour department; that outstanding Ters payments be disbursed immediately; and all fraudulent companies be made public as a matter of urgency.
The Departments of Labour’s Acting UIF Commissioner Marsha Bronkhorst said she took the concerns of the EFF very seriously.
Watch:
Mkhaliphi further made it clear to Sassa that their process of verifying beneficiaries had to come to an end.
“If Sassa does not have capacity, then they must employ people.”
She demanded that the R350 be increased to R1 000 and that the issue of long queues had to be dealt with.
The EFF had given the department of Labour and Sassa seven days to respond to their demands.
[In Pictures]: Commissar Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi @HhMkhaliphi handing over the list of demands to the CEO of SASSA.
The Commissar made it clear that this thing of verifying forever must come to an end. If SASSA does not have capacity then they must employ people. #EFFLabourDeskMarch pic.twitter.com/GQg544jzlP
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) November 5, 2020
[WATCH NOW]: Commissar Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi @HhMkhaliphi called on SASSA to address the long ques that are a glaring reminder of how impoverished Black people are in their own land. #EFFLabourDeskMarch pic.twitter.com/xPLi9DnXHg
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) November 5, 2020
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