South African Firms Ask for Overhaul of $7 Billion Jobless Fund
- As many as 87,000 people haven’t received insurance claims
- Lobbyists demand for the UIF to be placed under administration
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South African businesses and labor unions have asked the government to overhaul the nation’s $7 billion Unemployment Insurance Fund after the agency failed to pay thousands of claimants.
The UIF has yet to pay about 87,000 people after they were temporarily laid-off, according to Sanelisiwe Jantjies, acting director at Business Leadership South Africa, one of the nation’s biggest business associations. The number of jobless individuals applying to access the funds have been rising daily, she said.