PRETORIA – Nearly half of the R16.5 billion that South Africa's Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has disbursed under a temporary relief scheme for those who have lost income due to the Covid-19 pandemic has gone to Gauteng province, the department of employment and labour said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the department's spokesperson Teboho Thejane said this amounted to more than 1.5 million Gauteng workers out of the nearly 3.5 million employees who had benefitted from the fund across South Africa. In monetary terms, employees in Gauteng had received more than R7.9 billion in payouts from claims lodged by 111,385 employers.
The Western Cape received the second largest amount with R2.7 billion disbursed so far to 549,156 workers represented by 54 077 employers.
"The Northern Cape had the least number of claimants with R163 million paid to the province for 32,141 workers represented by 4 176 employers," Thejane said.
KwaZulu-Natal received over R2.4 billion paid to 523,578 workers, while the Eastern Cape had nearly R913 million distributed to 186,789 workers and in Mpumalanga 185,329 workers received R886 million in cash.
In the Free State province, 115 701 workers represented by 14,388 employers claimed R557 million, while in Limpopo with 93,275 workers received R435 million and in the North West R459 million was distributed to 88,215 workers.
Thejane said the disbursements represented payouts for April and part of May.
UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping said the fund was holding back R2.8 billion which could benefit 686,463 workers because 107,202 employers had not provided the right details and the status of the workers.
Normally, feedback for payment or non-payment, and the reasons, are sent to employers via an automated process within 24 hours.