SowetanLive reports that workers in various sectors have been hit by the delays in the payment of the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF’s) Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters), including some in the transport sector.  

The government introduced the scheme to help millions of workers who have lost income due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Jaco Potgieter of Krugersdorp has been working as a bus driver for five years.  His employer, Bus 2000, applied for the relief, but he has yet to receive payment.  This put so much strain on Potgieter's finances that on Monday he resigned from the company to cash in his pension and keep his family afloat.  Johannes Mathews, who has worked at Davey's Passenger Transport for 22 years, is also struggling to make ends meet as he too is struggling to get UIF relief monies.  According to Gary Wilson, general secretary of the SA Passenger Bargaining Council, 120 applications were made by the council on 29 and 30 March on behalf of employers.  After the applications were made, only 98 companies got paid and the other 22 are still waiting for their payment.  The 22 companies employ about 5,000 workers, including Potgieter and Mathews.  But, according to UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping, over 425,000 employers have successfully applied for Ters and over R20.3bn has been paid out to more than 306 employers.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Penwell Dlamini at SowetanLive

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