Doubts over UIF job relief

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has claimed to be at “the forefront of creating and preserving jobs” but experts and analysts question its impact in this area.

University of Fort Hare sociology lecturer Dr Bianca Chigbu, who specialises in labour relations, development and education, said the UIF worked to mitigate poverty and assist people in dealing with the struggles in their livelihoods but that in terms of job creation, it was not doing anything.

Chigbu said the unemployment rate was increasing and no one was making an impact to reduce the numbers.

“If the numbers of jobs they are creating are not significant, then no one can claim that they are in the forefront of job creation,” she said.

In its statement, the UIF said, together with the Industrial Development Corporation, it had signed the Facility and Subscription Agreement which brought into effect a substantial investment of R5 billion and saved 8 007 jobs by 31 December 2021.

According to the UIF, it assisted companies which claimed from the Covid Temporary Employer and Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) to afford workers’ salaries as others resorted to outright retrenchments to survive.

“We have been able to save jobs and bring relief to more than five million workers and this was made possible by the investments we have with the Public Investment Corporation,” the UIF said.

The basic income grant – on which many South Africans have become reliant – and whether it should become a permanent feature has been hotly debated among politicians, analysts and civil society of late.

But Antswisa Transaction Advisory chief economist Miyelani Mkhabela said the country did not have funds to cater for the basic income grant at the moment.

“Funding the basic income grant will demand the country to borrow funds,” he said.