Extortionists target people queuing for unemployment insurance

Jobless Nelson Mandela Bay residents, waiting for Unemployment Insurance Fund payouts amid a crippling official backlog, are being charged up to R80 to secure a spot in long queues at labour department offices in the city.

They claim “unscrupulous” individuals place rocks, bags and bricks in the lines and extort money from them for these spots.

Eastern Cape labour spokesperson Ziphozihle Klaas-Josefu confirmed the backlog and said that a security officer had been linked to extortion attempts.

She said to address the backlog, labour department offices would be open on Saturdays, starting on September 14.

The fund provides financial assistance to unemployed workers, those on maternity or parental leave, or unable to work due to illness or injury.

According to the Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey released in August, Nelson Mandela Bay’s unemployment rate dropped to 30.9% in the second quarter from 32.4% in the first quarter,

Journalist Bulelwa Payi said the backlog had left her in the lurch.

She said it was disappointing that people trying to unblock funds were instead confronted by criminals.

“It is a dog-eat-dog world outside these offices with these people selling spots in the line for about R80 each,” Payi said.

“Those who want to be attended to first pay the money, sometimes only to be told that the system is down once they get inside.”

Payi, who was retrenched in November, said the line outside the office in Kariega was long every day.

“Some people start queuing as early as 4.30am.

“But already some elements who want to take advantage of the situation mark spots with anything from old bags and rocks to bricks,” she said.

Payi said she was supposed to get her UIF benefits after her retrenchment.

But she only started to receive money in January.

“Two months later, it stopped,” she said.

“Getting responses from them is an endless task.”

Another resident, Carol Tonkin, said she has been struggling for more than a week to get onto the UIF website.

“It says ‘scheduled maintenance’,” Tonkin said, adding that she was also not receiving any joy from the labour department’s office in Govan Mbeki Avenue.

Another woman, Charmaine Arries, also visited the Govan Mbeki branch.

“The queues are almost 400m long, it looks like Shoprite on payday,” Arries said.

“And you have to be there by 4.30am to be assisted early,” she said.

She said she then visited the Kariega branch.

“They were just not helpful at all and I was told to go back to the one in Govan Mbeki.

“I was there for two days, the second day I was asked to pay cash for a [spot] in the line.”

She said she didn’t pay the money.

“I am [there] in the line to get money, why would I have money on me?”

Another Bay resident, Christopher Adriaan, said he was at his wits’ end.

“I got my first payment of UIF after waiting a month but got only R6,000 and I was working 17 years,” Adriaan said.

He said he then went to the Govan Mbeki branch.

“The queue was long and I waited long,” the former manager of a glass company said.

He was dismissed.

“I have been working a long time, I don’t know how they calculate it, I was earning R28,000 after tax and they only gave me R6,000.”

De Wet Els said his wife experienced the same issues.

In December, his wife was retrenched from her previous job as an assembler.

He said she earned R2,500 a week in that position.

“In January, she applied for UIF benefits online,” he said.

“She received an initial payment of R8,900 in February, followed by R3,700 in March.

“After being informed that she needed to reapply for further benefits, she waited three more months before receiving another payment of R8,900.

“Unfortunately, the payments then stopped.”

Once the payments ceased, he said, she went to the branch in Kariega.

“The queue was very long and we waited for hours, only to be told there was nothing left to give.”

Marelize van der Mescht said she has been struggling to get her UIF benefits for her maternity leave.

“I submitted all my docs to them in November 2023 and when I followed up about my payment in May this year they said I had to resubmit all my docs,” she said.

“So I just didn’t feel like going through everything again.

“To this day I haven’t received anything. It’s pathetic.”

Klaas-Josefu said backlog was a nationwide issue.

“The department is aware of the backlog as this is a national problem,” she said.

“The UIF online portal system, u-Filing, unstructured supplementary service data, virtual office as well as the UIF Covid-19 TERS systems that have been disrupted resulted in [temporary] long queues,” she said.

“However, the province has since put a plan to open its offices on Saturdays starting from 14 September as a mitigation measure.”

On the extortion attempts, Klaas-Josefu said: “A case was reported last year in October of a security officer who is an employee of the department who was reported to be involved in such [extortion] activities.

“The matter was investigated and concluded by the department’s anti-corruption unit and [is] now with employee relations internally for disciplinary processes.

“We are awaiting a decision from NPA on whether they will take the matter to court.

“The department is resolute in its stance that such tendencies need to be reported through the labour centre manager so that they are dealt with decisively.”

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