Thulas Nxesi

Minister of employment & labour 2

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Thulas Nxesi’s department was charged with ensuring that, through the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), workers received muchneeded relief when businesses were forced to close because of the lockdown.

This was part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s R500bn economic and social relief package. However, the temporary employer/employee relief scheme (Ters) was hit by myriad problems, including backlogs and unauthorised payments, which left workers unable to access assistance.

The auditor-general has since uncovered fraud and irregularities in the system. Ters payments have been suspended while the issues are sorted out.

There were complaints from social partners in Nedlac, working with the government on Ters payments, that Nxesi’s department was moving too slowly and had snubbed offers of help to fix issues in the system.

Nxesi was out of action himself after contracting Covid-19. During his hospitalisation, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan acted in his stead.

By the time Nxesi returned to the office, the auditor-general was hard at work auditing the payments. In light of those findings, Nxesi suspended UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping and senior management, pending the outcome of an investigation.

Booysen says Nxesi’s action on the suspensions is commendable, but questioned why this could even happen in the first place, and under his watch as minister.

“Would it have happened, even been revealed, without the auditorgeneral’s report, and without the previous weekend’s ANC [national executive committee] statement [about corruption]?” she asks.

Fikeni also says Nxesi acted swiftly to suspend officials. But, he says, the unprecedented demand that the UIF and other compensation funds experienced exposed capacity challenges in the agencies and in Nxesi’s department.

Sarakinsky says Nxesi failed to get payments to citizens in need speedily and accurately. x

Genevieve Quintal

government pension, Unemployment Insurance Fund payments or a National Student Financial Aid Scheme bursary.

No-one at the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa), which distributes grants, has so far been held accountable. Zulu reportedly told parliament she has no intention of asking the Sassa CEO to step aside. She pointed out that the agency had been attacked for delaying payments in the beginning, but that this was done to fix the system.

There were also issues around the paying of social grants that led to elderly and disabled people waiting in long queues. In one case a system glitch meant beneficiaries in Kwazulu-natal did not receive their money, while those in the Western Cape were paid double.

Hunger during the lockdown was a huge issue. Yet there were reports of officials stealing food parcels meant for the poor.

“Theft of food parcels was the lowest of the low of Covid greed,” Booysen says.

“Zulu’s department did disburse many millions of additional grants; simultaneously, its lapses probably left millions in the lurch.”

She says the substantial sums the department had to dole out were indicative of the failures of the past 25 years.

Sarakinsky says delivery of social grants and the temporary R350 grant was poor, causing much suffering. He says the social effects of the lockdown might have been mitigated somewhat if the money had been disbursed effectively and efficiently.

Fikeni, however, says Zulu’s department didn’t do badly, but adds that her tendency to make light of everything is a problem.

Genevieve Quintal