Temporary relief scheme to end

EMPLOYMENT and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi has announced that government will not continue with Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) after this month.

He said they would now focus on the jobs bloodbath with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to focus on its normal work.

The government had extended the Ters from January to March.

“We are not looking at extending beyond the March 15 because if we do that, we must have money,” said Nxesi.

“There is no intention to go beyond March 15. Do we have the money to do that? We don’t have the mone.”

He said they had to be guided by the actuaries on the question of extending Ters.

He said they were now looking at the looming job losses and that the UIF would have to accommodate those workers.

“The reason we were comfortable with the extension from January to March was that we were looking at the sectors that had not opened, the hotels, the air travels and others,” said Nxesi.

He said the economy had re-opened, with more businesses allowed to operate under level 1 restrictions.

The minister also told MPs that they were clamping down on Covid19 corruption after funds were looted in the UIF.

He said they had arrested 80 people linked to fraud and corruption in the UIF and R2 billion had been recovered by the Special Investigating Unit.

He said the fraud and corruption were perpetrated in a number of areas, including some of the companies creating ghost workers and claiming double amounts for workers.

The department also hired nine audit firms to follow the money.

“The SIU will hand over the report once they have concluded their investigation. Honourable members, you must understand that it takes time to deal with these matters. In our law, you must have evidence,” said Nxesi.

He said they had now jacked up their IT systems to prevent the looting of the UIF monies.

“What we have done is to put proper controls. These fraudsters are always ahead of us. It became clear we needed to upgrade our systems.

“We have requested people from National Treasury and people from outside to come and interrogate our IT systems and make recommendations.”

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni also told the National Council of Provinces that the economy could recover if the government sticks to the fiscal framework.

He said the government could not continue doing things outside of the budget.

One of the things they needed to monitor was the public sector wage bill. He said he was hoping for a positive outcome with the unions.

The trade unions have already tabled a CPI plus 4% increase at the bargaining council, but Mboweni said they would have to have more engagements with the unions.