This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Business Report writes that organised labour has been lashing out at the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL), calling its Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) “a slush fund for corrupt elements” inside and outside the state.
Last month, Cosatu called on the government to urgently deal with the allegations of serious corruption and wasteful expenditure at the social security fund. Recent media reports have highlighted possible inflated prices, open corruption, and dubious courses costing millions of rand, which Cosatu said it found “deeply alarming”. Cosatu claimed that the government was unconcerned and unresponsive to UIF issues because it did not even contribute to the fund, which also called into question its legitimacy to be a caretaker of workers’ funds. The federation has now called on the president to put the UIF under administration with certain conditions to protect the institution against further looting. According to Jan Mahlangu, retirement funds co-ordinator and member of the UIF board, civil servants were meant to be contributing to the fund, ever since the UIF Act was amended in 2017 to allow them to claim from the fund too, but the National Treasury was pushing back on complying with that legislation. In November, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) demanded an explanation on why the fund had failed to table its 2020/21 and 2022 annual reports. Theuns du Buisson, an economic researcher at trade union Solidarity, noted that “nothing more can be done until the annual reports are presented. We should be at the point of charging the people responsible on this matter, but you need the latest information to initiate a formal process.” He said the union was compiling a list of all labour-related annual reports that had passed their due date, including from the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) and the Compensation Fund, and would take the matter further in January if the UIF had not presented its case by then. Solidarity has requested more information from the UIF on numerous occasions, but has not received any feedback as yet. Du Buisson also said that Solidarity agreed with the Cosatu notion on the matter of accountability and the claims process.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ruan Jooste at Business Report
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page