'Cable damage' affects over 300k online UIF applications

'Cable damage' affects over 300k online UIF applications

The Department of Employment and Labour says a technical problem has affected applications from hundreds of thousands of people requesting UIF assistance from TERS – government's COVID-19 relief skeem. 

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It says there's been a break in its fibre connection with State Information and Technology Agency (SITA). 


The department's Makhosonke Buthelezi says the cable's been physically damaged. 


He says this is why they couldn't process applications for the month of May. 


Around R15 billion been paid from the skeem so far, to employers and employees financially affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. 


READ: Millions of jobs are on the line, says economist


Buthelezi says technicians have been working on sorting out the problem since Tuesday. 


"This is not only affected the TERS application online system but the whole of UIF. All the systems were affected by the network cable damage. 


"There were more than 300,000 applications. So, if we to use an estimation we are looking at that number."


Also read: Labour Minister outlines regulations for businesses to follow

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