Reply:

An emphatic point has to be made that the nature of unemployment in our country is such that, it is high, it is structural, systemic and deep-seated. This already outlined nature of unemployment in South Africa is compounded bylack of requisite skills as well as misalignment of them. Given this sad reality, a focussed, in touch, alert and forward-thinking government would bring among its interventions mass employment and Public Employment Programmes (PEPs) offer such. So, Public Employment Programmes are tremendously important in the context of countries like ours, they are key!

Do we rely only on them for job creation? Of course not! One of the key aspects of Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan is the Infrastructure Programme. Infrastructure development has a huge potential, almost guaranteed job creation, whether you talk of transforming of cities, towns, rural areas landscape or creation of bulk water infrastructure, national roads improvements projects, school construction, network infrastructure such as ports, rail, roads, etc – those go concurrently with creation of employment.

In the South African Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, there is reindustrialisation. Reindustrialisation will create employment and will also grow business. Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan among many, seeks to create an economy that will create jobs. The creation of jobs is one of the key objectives of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan. There is also an aim to reverse the decline of the local manufacturing sector, the resuscitation of tourism, you should know the capacity of tourism in terms of labour absorption. There will also be unchartered terrain especially when we go deeper to digital advancement, the space is alive with possibilities particularly when it comes to youth employment. This Plan will invest in our human capital even for the future. So, Dr Cardo, yes, NEDLAC social partners considered job creation interventions beyond the Public Employment Programmes.

Reply:

The matter was conciliated on 12 December 2019.

The request for Arbitration was received late and the applicant applied for condonation, which was granted on 26 May 2020. The arbitration was scheduled and heard on 1 July 2020 where the applicant was in attendance.

The Commissioner found that the respondent, Tsitsikamma Forest Village Trust, had not dismissed the applicant, Mr. Mzinosi Ntentile, as alleged by the applicant in his referral of his dispute to the CCMA. The Commissioner found further that the applicant’s employment had in fact, come to an end, when his fixed term contract had ended in August 2019. The Arbitration Award was issued and served on 13 July 2020.

END

Reply:

What we are picking up from our records thus far is that, the learners referred to, do not belong to the Labour Activation Programmes of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. We will continue to investigate this matter with a view to establish as to whether there any links that might be there with our LAP.

However, for information purposes, LAP learners who were active before the nationwide lockdown, supported by attendance registers, are paid Covid-19 lockdown stipends for the months of April, May and June 2020. They are not expected to claim any other grant by virtue of this payment. In cases where they have not yet received their payments, it means there might be other circumstances delaying the payments.

Reply:

No. The Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act provides for parties in the claims process which are:

• Employers who are required to register, pay annual assessment and submit claims when workers are injured or contract an occupational disease in the workplace.
• Medical Service providers who treat the injured workers or those who contracted occupational diseases and claim such costs from the Compensation Fund
• Workers who when they are injured in the workplace are entitled to benefits as outlined in the Act.

The law is adequate with regards to provisions related to the above mentioned parties hence there has been no need to issue a regulation(s) in terms of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases for parties who are not in the Act.

Reply:

1. a). Domestic Worker Cases

Sector	Received	Inspected	Compliant	Not Compliant	Scheduled	Cancelled
Domestic	25 699	3289	2958	331	3954	473

(i) The statistics for the Lockdown period (Quarters 1 & 2 of the 2020/21 Financial Year is still being verified and interrogated.

(ii) The Department does not maintain statistics in respect of sexual assault cases as these are criminal matters.

(iii) The Department does not maintain statistics in respect of rape cases as these are criminal matters.

(b) In reference to national Minimum Wage (NMW) Cases, 7 days is the turnaround time to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, due to Covid - 19 Pandemic, Inspectors had to undertake Administrative Inspections (working from home) which made adherence to this time-limit difficult.

(c) The statistics for the Lockdown period (Quarters 1 & 2 of the 2020/21 Financial Year is still being verified and interrogated.

(2) Yes, complaints were made through the Impimpa Hotline. Since the inception of the Impimpa Hotline in March 2020, 178 000 cases have been reported

(3) To ensure the effective monitoring and enforcement of the national minimum wage, my department developed a reporting line to allow workers to report cases of non-compliance with the national minimum wage without any cost to them which I subsequently launched on the 5th March 2020.

To recognise the Batho Pele principle of openness and transparency and to hold us accountable on whether the cases reported on the reporting line were resolved within the stipulated time-frames, a dashboard was built to extract data from the system. The data would then be published on the department’s website on a weekly basis.The data was subsequently published on the website but that was unfortunately halted as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown.

4. The success of this hotline was very much dependent on properly marketingit to ensure that it is communicated to all employees. My department therefore engaged GCIS to arrange for the marketing and advertising of this NMW Impimpa reporting line.

It was therefore crucial to use different media platforms in order to ensure that the information on the system reached all the intended beneficiaries. The department therefore made use of about six media platforms (print, radio, taxi rank advertising, train station advertising, television and social media) amounting to R21 620 000 00 to cover the cost of marketing and advertising of the NMW Impimpa hotline.

(5) The department made use of six media platforms (print, radio, taxi rank advertising, train station advertising, television and social media) amounting to R21 620 000 00 to ensure that the message is delivered to all stakeholders.

Since the launch of the NMW Impimpa hotline in March, employees have been making use of this service as to date about 178 000 cases were recorded on the NMW Impimpa dashboardbut it has unfortunately been temporarily put on hold as the department has received more numbers than anticipated which has put the department on pressure with regards to funding.

Reply:

Type	Total	Total amount
Below legal age of employment	53	224 677.43

(i) Applicants below the legal age of employment:

(ii) Applicants with the same identity number as Unemployment Insurance Fund

Type	Total	Total amount
Applicant's ID numbers same as UIF employee	1	4 027.45

(iii) Deceased individuals:

Type	Total	Total amount
Deceased	113	441 144.34

Type	Total	Total amount
Inmates	26	R 129 242.64

(iv) Individuals in prison:

(v) Individuals with invalid identity numbers:

Type	Total	Total amount
Invalid ID numbers	4 161	R 30 071 248.84

(vi) Applicants who received benefits from other state institutions, including remuneration:

Type	Total	Total amount
(SASSA) disability grant	20	69 419.36
(SASSA) Old age grant	22 611	88 814 684.36

(vii) Applicants with the same banking details as UIF employees:

(a) is the total quantum of payments in each category?

Type	Total	Total amount
Applicant's bank details same as UIF employee	4	613.89

(b) Is the total quantum of payments in each category?

Total amount: R 119 769 058.31

Reply:

Type	Total exceptions	Total amount
Possible Double Dipping - PERSAL	9 494	R 41 009 737.70
Possible Double Dipping - SANDF	78	R 327 638.36
Total	9 572	41 337 376.06

2. The matter is under investigation by the UIF Fraud Unit as well as the SIU and based on the investigation recommendations, the recovery process will be initiated by UIF. In addition, possible criminal cases and internal disciplinary cases can be instituted

Reply:

Type	Total exceptions	Total amount
Possible Double Dipping - PERSAL	9 494	R 41 009 737.70
Possible Double Dipping - SANDF	78	R 327 638.36
Total	9 572	41 337 376.06

Reply:

None. There are no invoices that have not been paid as a result of migration into CompEasy.

Invoices were migrated into CompEasy from uMehluko so that they can continue to be paid in CompEasy when payable.

Reply:

Yes, they were based on information in CompEasy.

A total of 38 946 invoices could not be migrated into CompEasy mainly due to the invoices not meeting the criteria for migration.

These invoices had already been rejected on uMehluko and the rejection reasons of those medical invoices were already communicated to medical service providers. Reasons for rejection included tariff code that did not match the published gazetted Compensation fund tariff codes.

These invoices were subsequently paid through the finance system of the Fund after medical service providers had provided the Fund with corrected information

Reply:

1. 125

2. None

3. Note applicable

 

Reply:

a)

1. Mr Tebogo Maruping – Unemployment insurance Commissioner.
2. Ms Fezeka Puzi, UIF CFO.
3. Ms Judith Kumbi, Chief Director Operations.
4. Ms Maria Ramashaba, Director: Supply Chain Management.
5. Ms Nompumemlelo Mconywa: chief Director: Labour Activation Programme.

b)

1. Monthly gross salary is R107 863.90

2. Monthly gross salary is R101 118.31

3. Monthly gross salary is R94 252 .56.

4. Monthly gross salary is R800 89.44

5. Monthly gross salary is R97 227.18.

The date of return to work is dependant on completion and processing of the investigation report. The report is expected, according to norms, within 60 days from September 2020 or such extended period as may apply.

Reply:

Minister Nxesi never received any money from Mr Sodi or his company. As Mr Sodi clarified at the Zondo Commission that the amount of R15 000 was paid directly to the learners’ school account and R30 000 paid directly for accommodation of other two learners to allow them to continue with their schooling.

Therefore, since the payments were not directly made to the Minister, there was no obligation to declare such in terms of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act 82 of 1998. Minister Nxesi is not related in any manner to the learners.

To the Minister’s knowledge, Mr Sodi or his company did not get any gratification for this kind gesture in a form of contracts from Departments under his leadership.

Reply:

Unfortunately, Honourable Member Mkhonto, Compensation fund does not have this information as it is not information required in support of a claim.

Reply:

As at 30 September 2020, there are 67 338 unpaid invoices amounting to R 206 588 327,00 out of the 319 801 invoices submitted to the Compensation Fund amounting to R1 168 693 890.4. The 67 338 unpaid invoices are made up of the following categories:

Invoice Status	Invoices Received	Total Amount	Description
Invoice Pended	9 458	R37 610 836,46	Invoice processed but information is outstanding
Open Assessment	5 914	R38 957 337,51	The invoices are in assessment stage
Open Invoice Entry	34 983	R56 791 275,32	Invoices have been  received, not yet processed
Parked Payment	932	R2 833 159,31	Invoices have been  assessed, to be referred to finance
To be Approved	15 952	R66 633 867,42	Invoices have been  fully assessed, awaiting approval
No Status	99	R3 761 851,13	Invoice partially processed, to be assessed for further statuses
	67 338	R206 588 327,15

Reply:

1: These is no legal provision that allows or prohibits the involvement of third parties.

2: Yes, this createchallenges in the processing of claims. Claims processing is often delayed due to outstanding information required while medical service providers are paid and the injured workers remain unpaid as the Fund is unable to finalise the claims due to the outstanding claims information.

Reply:

Yes, theDepartment has a contract as follows:

What is the scope of the agreement	What is the name of the service provider	Where is the service provider based and	What is the value of the contract?
SAP Roadmap Implementation (Please see the attached business case)	Tech Mahindra SA	It is an international company that has it South African branch based in Gauteng, Midrand and its headquarters are in Pune, INDIA	Total Contract amount is R434 751 219.66

UIF is currently engaged in the following contracts:

What is the scope of the agreement	What is the name of the service provider	Where is the service provider based and	What is the value of the contract?
Biometric system implementation (Supply thumbprint devices, implementation and support)	2Identify	Pretoria	Contract value R 8 748 559.85 for 3 years to Dec 2021
Ufiling and VO support and maintenance including system enhancements and System migration	Interfile	Randburg	Contract value R 123 950 737.50 for 3 years from August 2020 to Aug 2023
Queue Management System Implementation and support	Emerge Customer flow Management	Centurion	Contract value R49 366 744.28 for 3 years to August 2021
Provision of ICT Resources	Vindhya Systems	Sandton Resources (in house)	R 51 030 840.30 3 years to August 2021

The Compensation Fund is currently engaged in:

What is the scope of the agreement	What is the name of the service provider	Where is the service provider based and	What is the value of the contract?
Development, maintenance and support of Claims management system (CompEasy) on SAP for Insurance (S4i) for a period of six years	Dimension Data.	Gauteng, Johannesburg	Contract value is R287 829 047.00

Reply:

a) The latest details are that this matter is still ongoing. The School Principal in the presence of the Department of Employment and Labour handed the names and capacities of the Department of Basic Education officials over to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

b) Then the NPA subpoenaed the Department of Basic Education officials regarding non-compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) in some classrooms of that particular school.

Reply:

a) Honourable Member would recall that Statistics South Africa is responsible for collection, collating and releasing of the official employment statistics through the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) and the Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES).

The number of jobs lost in the mining industry since the beginning of the lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 is not yet available because the QLSF 2nd Quarter will be released around the dates of 29th September 2020 and the QES will be released around the 15th of October 2020.

We will therefore request that we humbly await the publication of the official data in the country.

Reply:

Municipalities’ employees are legible to apply for Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF)benefits if the employer has registered them using a reference number.

UIF Covid-19 TERS, are funds that a meant for employees who have been temporary laid-off due to lockdown as everybody is adhering to health and safety protocols having occasioned by the outbreak of devastating Covid-19. Attempting to curb the spread of Covid-19 and flatten the curve, many employees had to stay at home, so, to mitigate against the hardship of not earning whilst staying at home, employers on behalf of employees or employees themselves had to apply for UIF Covid-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS).Ifworkers were on strike and notat work it would not be possible for them to qualify for COVID-19 TERS benefits.

The employees could qualify for other UIF benefits as and when they getunemployed, dismissed, retrenched deceased, on maternity leave etc.

Municipalities have the right to register for the Unemployment Insurance and pay contribution to the Fund.

Reply:

 

I may not be familiar with every little challenge that the provided list of youth organisations faces on a daily basis as none of these entities fall under the Department of Employment and Labour whilst others are not even in government. Amongst the challenges that we have identified within government that continue to contribute to high unemployment rate amongst the youth are the following:

• The structural nature of the South African economy, low economic growth levels compounded by Insufficient investments by the private and public sector in new ventures and infrastructure
• socio economic challenges and the high poverty levels that remain amongst blacks and in some instances contributing to school drop outs especially in peri-urban and rural areas,
• limited skill acquisition and resultant inadequate preparation of youth for entry into the world of work,
• rapid changes in the labour market fuelled by digitization and automation.
• The covid-19 pandemic has further added to the above challenges.

I am aware that despite challenges that these youth organisations continue to face on a daily basis, they have done a lot to assist government in addressing the plight of our young people. Within government, great strides have been made in improving employability of young people through interventions in the education system but more still needs to be done. Government has also implemented a number of interventions to address the youth unemployment problem. These includes:-

• High level interventions to grow the economy within National Development Plan 2030, the Medium Term Strategic Framework and Agreements conclude by the President and the various Ministers.

Within the Department of Employment and Labour:

• The Promulgation of the Employment Services Act 2014 was introduced to guide the Department in its free services to promote youth employment. These services include registration of work seekers and employment opportunities, the matching, counselling, placement offered through 126 Labour centres, satellite and visiting points; and vulnerable groups employment schemes through 13 Supported Employment Enterprises Factories and Subsidized organizations that employ people with disabilities.
• Labour Activation programmes funded by the Unemployment Insurance Fund
• Occupational death dependants Youth bursary scheme funded by the Compensation Fund.

Other departments have also initiated the following interventions that benefited millions of young people as part of their contribution:-

• The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)
• Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) and Jobs Fund by National Treasury
• The 2018 Jobs Summit Framework Agreement, as well as the establishment of the Job Fund
• The Skills development system funded by the Skills levy, the Bursary Scheme funded under the NESFAS in the High Education and Science and Technology Department
• More recently Government has developed the Presidential Youth Employment Interverntion which provided for the Presidential Youth Service, scaling the Youth Employment Service (YES) and the creation of a national pathway management network.

Reply:

The labour inspector was dispatched to conduct an inspection to determine the level of non-compliance by the employer.

OUTCOME OF THE INSPECTION CONDUCTED

The BCEA and OHS inspection was conducted on the 13th of August 2020. During the inspection, it transpired that the employees are covered by MIBCO Bargaining Council. Employees were given two options by the employer during lockdown,

1. to take unpaid leave and personally claim from UIF,
2. another option was to take paid leave.

Some of the employees opted for paid annual leave while the rest of the employees were given paid leave while the employer also claimed for the COVID- 19 (Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme TERS) benefits.

The Department issued the Amended COVID-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme directive that was signed on the 16th of April 2020 (clause 5.4) which provides as follows: “ an employer who has required an employee to take annual leave during the period of lockdown in terms of section 22(1)(b) of the BCEA 1997(Act 75 of 1997) may set off an amount received from the UIF in respect of that employee’s COVID -19 benefit against the amount paid to the employee in respect of annual leave provided that the employee is credited proportionate entitlement to paid annual leave in the future”

Amendment to Directive

Clause 5.5 provides as follows : “ To speed payment of COVID 19 benefits to employees, employers are urged to pay employees based on clause 3.4 of the Directive and reimburse or set off such with COVID 19 benefits claim payments from UIF”

In the case of these employees, the employer did not deduct paid annual leave from the UIF COVID-19 TERS payments.

Proof of UIF COVID-19 TERS and annual leave payments will be provided by the employer.

The employer is in the process of closing the business due to lease agreement that is coming to an end with TOTAL. CCMA is facilitating the retrenchment process. (Case No EC EL3458/20)

It is therefore recommended that the employer deducts the paid annual leave from July COVID-19 TERS benefits to ensure that if the employees are retrenched they would be reimbursed for the annual leave credit.

Reply:

1.

1. 293 applications were received from Early Childhood Development Centre
2. UIF Database does not differentiate centres but register them as per the applicant.
3. Total employees applied for is 4761
4. 1940 applicants were rejected
5. Below are various reasons for rejection.

Error types

Employees not declared

Bank Name not found

Shut-down From Date not found

Applicant already received TERS benefits from LAP - TERS

Account Number not found

ID No. is On Hold on the UIF Database

Account type not found

Leave Income is a Negative Amount

Branch Code not found

Monthly Salary is a negative amount

Duplicate ID

3.

• 1. 2 821 employees were paid
  2. Total amount paid out is R 10 022 922.57
  3. The value still to be paid to 1940 employees not determined to date.

Reply:

 

Below is a breakdown of Covid-19 payment per month and employees benefited.

Date	Employers	Employees	Amount
April 2020	397 985	4 091 393	R 20 587 152 009.36
May 2020	238 540	2 846 119	R 11 577 254 567.94
June 2020	189 289	2 563 853	R 9 599 444 264.38
Overall Totals	825 814	9 501 365	R 41 763 850 841.68

1

Reply:

There are currently 17 active legal cases currently open against the Compensation Fund for outstanding compensations due to medical service providers. The total value of the amounts payable will be determined by the courts.

Reply:

1. The number of cases that have been detected of employers who claimed from Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) on behalf of employees but did not pay their employees what was due to them is 38

2. These cases were subjected to investigation. In 11 of them investigation has been completed. We also came up with the action that we termed ‘Follow The Money’ with its objective of conducting audit on all the payments. Again, the Department and UIF have worked through the Fusion Centre with other government departments, agencies and databases to close gaps and eliminate risks. The Fusion Centre is a combination of law enforcement agencies which is intended to speed up investigation and prosecution of COVID-19 related fraud and corruption cases.

1

Reply:

Yes. The corresponded was responded to Directly to Edenvale Child Welfare on 11 December 2018 and 1 September 2019.

The records of the Compensation Fund show that the Edenvale Child Welfare owes an amount of R34 881.29 to the Compensation Fund as at

19/08/2020. The assessments for assessment years 2011; 2017; 2018 and 2019 are paid in full.

The total outstanding balance is detailed in the table below.

Assessment Year	Invoice Amount
2009	4 771.41
2010	3 471.05
2012	3 847.01
2013	3 988.83
2014	4 316.98
2015	4 470.64
2016	4 064.72
Total penalty and interest on late payment charged	5 950.65
Total outstanding as at 19/08/2020	34 881.29

Their request to waver assessments and penalties was not approved by the CF. In the correspondence with the Edenvale Child Welfare, options for repayment of the outstanding monies are provided.

Reply:

Minister of Employment and Labour was neither asked nor replied to Question 1057 on 19 June 2020.

Reply:

1. Goods and services purchased with a value below R500 000.

(a) Names of Suppliers (b) Amounts awarded (c) Product supplied

 

(a) Names of Suppliers	(b) Amounts awarded	(c) Product supplied
HEAD OFFICE
DA Elite SV	R 3850.00	Waterless hand sanitizer
Sivesethu Waste Management and Projects	R 107 500.00	Waterless hand sanitizer
Quantum Life Projects	R 175 000.00	Waterless hand sanitizer
Yalt General Trading	R 15 050.00	Latex gloves
Zans African Medical	R 255 178.56	PPE Medical kits and N95 masks
Kravisize Technologies	R 107 500.00	Face shields
Mpilonde Technologies	R 171 913.50	Protective body suits/medical gowns for inspectors

(2). All procurement stated above were done through the emergency procurement procedures as communicated by National Treasury, to avert the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and as such were reported to the National Treasury.

(a) Inspectors, essential and frontline staff dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic had to be geared and protected through the necessary PPE.

(b) Due to shortness of PPE stock at the beginning of the lockdown, all procurement had to happen quickly to ensure the spread of the virus is averted, hence the use of the emergency procedures. In most of the cases more than one quotation was sourced, but this was also mandated by National Treasury Instruction notes to assist Departments with this process.

(3) Although availability of stock was one of the deciding factors, all suppliers were sourced through the CSD and the prices were equal or lower than that on the list of suppliers provided by National Treasury.

(4) At the moment no.

Reply:

(a) No amount was paid to the enterprise

(b) Call Centre Services

Reply:

a) A total of 421 210 Unemployment Insurance Fund Covid-19 TERS Foreign National workers’ applications were submitted by employers for the month of April.

b) Out of the 421 210 Foreign Nationals workers UIF Covid-19 applications submitted by employers a total of 114 059 applications were approved and processed by the Unemployment Insurance Fund by 15 May 2020.

Reply:

1. What (a) measures are in place to ensure that those who were drawing on the Unemployment Insurance Fund are removed from the system upon securing a permanent job

(a) There are statutory measures that are in place to ensure that those who were drawing on the Unemployment Insurance Fund are removed from the system upon securing a permanent job. These measures are outlined in the provisions of the Unemployment Insurance Contribution Act, 4 of 2002 (“the Act”). The provisions of section 10 (1) and (2) of the Act respectively place a duty on every employer; which the Act applies to, to register with the Unemployment Insurance Fund and before the seventh day of each month, submit to the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner information relating to:

(i) The termination of the employment of any employee; and

(ii) The appointment of any employee by the employer

(b) The Department of Employment and Labour is in a process of drafting a Labour Migration Policy (LMP). The LMP is one of the Sub-themes of the National Employment Policy (NEP) that we are currently working on. The LMP covers a range of topics that include amongst others, work visas for scarce and critical skills, quotas of foreign nationals in the labour market etc. once we have completed we will publish this policy for public comment.

2. Yes, it will reflect the shortage of scarce and critical skills. Our policies provide for the importation of skills in an event that they do not exist in the country.

Reply:

1. The Compensation Fund has received and registered 168 claims related to COVID-19.

2. There haven’t been any glitches reported to date with regards to registration and adjudication of COVID-19 claims.

Reply:

The Unemployment Insurance Fund did not commission Actuarial Research into its financial sustainability in the event of mass-scale job losses.

a) Not applicable since no actuarial Research conducted on sustainability of the Fund in the event of mass-scale job losses.

b) Not applicable since no actuarial Research conducted on sustainability of the Fund in the event of mass-scale job losses.

Our Actuaries have presented the following scenarios:

Scenario	Implications for finances of the UIF
Unemployment rate peaks at 41.4% and COVID19TERS benefits cost R48Billion	UIF becomes financially unsound as no Insurance Capital left and required to “borrow from future” by using 5% of accumulated credits. Sufficient funds should be available to pay benefits on a PAYG basis.   It is possible that the fund could return to financial soundness in 10 years.
Unemployment rate peaks at 41.4% and COVID19TERS benefits cost R68Billion	UIF becomes financially unsound as no Insurance Capital left and required to “borrow from future” by using 60% of accumulated credits. Sufficient funds available. It is unlikely that the fund could return to financial soundness in 10 years without a contribution increase and will essentially operate on a PAYG basis
Unemployment rate peaks at 53.7% and COVID19TERS benefits cost R48b	All accumulated credits will be depleted and the UIF would also need to borrow against beneficiaries and service providers to pay claims. Taking liquidity of assets into account, the fund will not be able to pay all claims when due and may need to put RAF-style measures in place to prioritise / structure payments
Unemployment rate peaks at 53.7% and COVID19TERS benefits cost R68b	Possible remedies for the dire financial position of the fund under this scenario could include: • Additional funding from Treasury • Temporary increase in contribution rate • Reduction in benefit

Reply:

1. The Department of Employment and Labour did not award any tenders connected to Covid-19 pandemic. Only Personal Protective Equipment was procured during this period and that was done through the prescribed emergency procedures.

(a) Not applicable; because there were no tenders awarded during the period in question.

(b) Not applicable; because there were no tenders awarded during the period in question.

(c) Not applicable; because there were no tenders awarded during the period in question.

(2). (a) and (b) Not applicable; because there were no tenders awarded during this period

(3) Not applicable; because there were no tenders awarded during the period in question.

(4) Emergency procurement procedure had to be applied to procure Personal Protective Equipment for all the Department of Employment and Labour officials declared as essential services, especially the Labour Inspector who had to ensure compliance with Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations during all levels of the lockdown.

Reply:

1. UIF offers Covid -19 relief benefit to all businesses that have employer and employee relationship. Other existing relief is Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) for all businesses facing financial distress and other operational challenges affecting productivity. Requirements are Turnaround plan for the business, compliant with SARS.
2. No, only if you meet the requirements mentioned in one above.

Reply:

a) Provincial breakdown per province for Covid-19 benefits

Province	Employers	Employees	Amount
Eastern Cape	12953	144818	R 776 156 233.74
Free State	10077	89704	R 473 946 419.72
Gauteng	78007	1175703	R 6 727 878 282.04
Kwa Zulu Natal	29510	405933	R 2 121 794 517.27
Limpopo	6882	72317	R 369 951 437.25
Mpumalanga	10 816	143686	R 753 803 741.85
Northern Cape	2 925	24919	R 139 026 339.16
North West	6 432	68393	R 390 741 314.34
Western Cape	37 872	425763	R 2 325 801 123.84
Total	195 471	2 551 236	R14 079 099 409.20

b) The employers and employees not found in UIF system or rejected (not paid) per province

	EMPLOYERS	EMPLOYEES	AMOUNT
Eastern Cape	5 066	31 735	R 130 415 911.65
Free State	3 941	19 657	R 79 636 227.49
Gauteng	30 510	257 636	R 1 130 471 342.60
Kwa Zulu Natal	11 542	88 954	R 356 520 703.27
Limpopo	2 692	15 847	R 621 62 167.69
Mpumalanga	4 230	31 486	R 126 660 069.10
Northern Cape	1 144	5 461	R 23 360 305.54
North West	2 516	14 987	R 65 655 447.34
Western Cape	14 813	93 299	R 390 799 507.49
Total	76 453	559 062	R 2 365 681 682.17

Reply:

Our Department was made aware of this situation by the employees of the said company. Concurrently, the employees referred the matter to the

Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) for its intervention. The Federation’s intervention led to the withdrawal of the loan offer by the said

company. The company offered to pay the employees, whilst working with them to find a sustainable approach to supporting its workforce.

As the Department, we viewed the action of the company as unfair towards the employees. We are happy that an amicable solution was found.

Reply:

According to the Directives for COVID-19 TERS, published by Minister of Employment and Labour, Mr TW Nxesi, employers are obliged to apply on behalf of their employees for the Covid-19 TERS Benefit. Furthermore, the Directives provide for Bargaining Councils or Entities that are legal bodies to apply for employees. Therefore, employees can have their applications made through any of the above options. Bargaining Councils or Entities or Employers are encouraged to apply for employees as it is them who have the information, systems and tools that will enable an efficient application process. In addition, Bargaining Councils or Entities or Employers are obliged through an Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to commit to certain conditions, which they can be held liable for should they fail to honour.

Reply:

There is currently no intention to introduce a jobs protection bill. The Department is however in the process of developing a national employment policy that would amongst others address the notion of protection of jobs. This policy will have to be presented to parliament when it is done.

Reply:

Honourable Dr MJ Cardo, the bargaining councils furnished the Registrar of Labour Relations with the aggregated figures of exemptions from SMMEs. They classify them all under small business.

• For 2017, bargaining councils with extended collective bargaining to non-parties received from SMMEs a total of 1388 exemption applications. 1266 were granted; 91 were refused; and 17 were either withdrawn or still under consideration by end of 2017.

• For 2018, bargaining councils received from SMMEs a total of 2764 exemption applications. 2588 were granted; 114 were refused; and 93 were either withdrawn or still under consideration by end of 2018.

• In 2019, bargaining councils received from SMMEs a total of 1712 exemption applications, 1464 were granted; 168 were refused; and 76 were either withdrawn or still under consideration by end of 2019

Reply:

The National Minimum Wage Commission is required by section 11 (b) of the National Minimum Act to investigate and report annually to the Minister on the impact of the national minimum wage on the economy, collective bargaining and in conducting that exercise, they have outsourced a research that will inform the adjustment to the national minimum wage level.

For the 2020 adjustment the researchers experienced some challenges such as the fact that accurately isolating the main effects of the NMW would require a reasonable time to have elapsed after the introduction of the NMW, and given that the NMW came into effect in January 2019, a comprehensive study on the short-term impacts in South Africa could not justifiable begin until after June 2020.

Also, there is an unavoidable time lag in the release of the quarterly survey (Quarterly Labour Force Statistics) by Stats SA that the researchers use to obtain the relevant labour market information that they need to accurately analyse the impact of the NMW.

These challenges inadvertently led to the delay in the reviewing of the national minimum wage which was only reviewed and implemented on the 1st March 2020 by CPI 3.8% in order to protect low-income workers from erosion in their incomes.

For the 2021 adjustment, the Commission is intending to publish a comprehensive research in the second half of the year into the overall impact of the national minimum wage on employment, poverty and inequality. This is however dependent on the progress that will be given by the researchers on the meeting scheduled for the 24th March 2020.

Reply:

The Compensation Fund has introduced the new CompEASY System in October 2019 and has progressively introduced new functionality and made improvements on some function based on feedback from users:

• User Registration was introduced on 1 October 2019
• Claims Registration was introduced on 14 October for internal users and 18 October 2019 for external users
• Electronic Medical Claims batch submission and internal medical claims capturing on 1 November 2019
• External Medical Claims and Pre Authorisation application released on 9 February 2020

Total amount paid since October 2019:

• to medical service providers on CompEASY is R103 million
• to medical service providers on SAP ECC R479 million
• to pensioners and beneficiaries R465 million

Reply:

1. CompEasy (S4i) information:

(a) R 143 million

(b) Claims processed in the system since introduction of the new claim system:

i.Medical invoices processed 170 955

ii. Claims Registered 15 428

iii. Claims Paid:

1. to medical service providers on CompEASY is R103 million
2. to medical service providers on SAP ECC R 479 million
3. to pensioners and beneficiaries R465 million

2. Adequate User Acceptance Testing and Quality Assurance was provided during the development of the new system prior to introducing the system. The gradual release of the functionalities in the system also assisted Users to test the system internally and give feedback before it is released to the public.

There is no legal or operational requirement to parallel test a system. Based on the control weaknesses in the old system, parallel testing would have continued to expose the Fund to fraudulent and invalid claims.

On the payment side the Fund continued to pay claims both on the new CompEasy system and on the old SAP ECC.

Reply:

1. Section 10(1) of the Employment Services Act, No 4 of 2014 does not put an obligation to any employer in either the private or public sector to report on any vacancy or jobs created. We therefore do not have an accurate record of all jobs created across the country including those in the small business sector or cooperatives during 2017/18 and 2018/19. The registration of opportunities is voluntary and advertisement and placement in those opportunities are done free of charge. The number of opportunities registered with the Department during the 2017/18 and 2018/19 was 131 994 and 172 814 respectively.

We also know that at the end of Quarter 3 there were 16.4 million people that are employed and we also maintain records of registered work seekers that we place in the labour market. We do know that within government, the opportunities that were created by public works projects in 2017/18 and 2018/19 were 1 406 736 and 1 455 840 respectively.

The Public Employment Services Branch of the Department of Employment and Labour placed in employment during 2017/18 and 2018/19 a total of 131 994 and 172 814 persons respectively.

2. The National Development Plan projections of 11 million jobs to be created by 2030 were based on certain assumptions at a particular point in time. In panning for the next five years, our government took into consideration the prevailing economic conditions both locally and internationally and made adjustments accordingly in the Medium Term Strategic Framework 2020/21 to 2023/24.

3. (a & b) The current situation regarding jobs and whether the target will be achieved or not is as outlined in point 1 above.

Reply:

a) The total number of work seekers registered during 2016/17 financial year on the national Employment Services System South Africa (ESSA) of the Department was 650 593 and the total opportunities that the various employers advertised was 70 908.

b) Work seekers registered during 2017/18 was 872 746 and opportunities were 131 994.

c) Work seekers registered during 2018/19 was 888 547 and opportunities were 172 814.

Reply:

The Compensation Fund has not implemented a COMPSOL payout system. However, in the COMPEASY system that we have just implemented these are the plans we have in place to assist stakeholders (employers and medical practitioners:

1. Special email addresses have been communicated to stakeholders where any challenges with the system can be reported and where the situation warrants it, we bring the clients into the offices of the Compensation Fund to offer assistance. This supports remains available to any user of the system and the following email addresses have been made available to users

• [email protected] – National Support
• [email protected] – For North West users
• [email protected] – For Gauteng users
• [email protected] – For KZN users
• [email protected] – For Mpumalanga users
• [email protected] – For Free State users
• [email protected] – For Eastern Cape users
• [email protected] – For Limpopo users
• [email protected] – For Western Cape users
• [email protected] – For Northern cape users
• [email protected] – For Free State users

2. Where user support is required we provide the assistance and where its improvements required on the system, we will log it for consideration as we continue to enhance the system to improve user experience.

3. User Guides are available on the Department of Employment and Labour Websites for reference

4. Training was conducted in September 2019 for clients and we will continue to provide the assistance

5. We have set up operational centres at some of the hospitals where there is a concentration of medical service providers who render services to the injured workers.

Reply:

Question 1.

Number of businesses inspected to determine compliance with affirmative Action legislation:

The total number of employers inspected in Kempton Park is 12.

1. Securitas Specialised Services (Inspection)

2. Xylem Water Solutions (Inspection)

3. Ziegler South Africa (Inspection)

4. South African Express Airways (Inspection)

5. Improvair Environmental Solutions ( DG Review)

6. Aviator Hotel (Inspection)

7. Andru Mining (PTY) LTD

8. Peermont Global (PTY) LTD Emperors Palace (Inspection)

9. Right side up distributors (PTY) LTD (Inspection)

10. Jumbo Brands (PTY) LTD (Inspection)

11. Burger Radiologist Inc. (Inspection)

12. Rham Equipment (PTY) LTD (Inspection)

The total number of employers inspected in Isando is 3.

1. Revlon South Africa (Inspection)

2. Reckitt Benckiser (PTY) LTD (Inspection)

3 Abavikeli Security Services (Inspection)

The total number of employers inspected in Edenvale is 4.

1.Questek Advanced Technologies (PTY) LTD(Inspection)

2.Brunational (PTY) LTD(Inspection)

3. Alschemex South Africa (PTY) LTD (Inspection)

4. Acoc Dynamics CC (Inspection)

The total number of employers inspected is 19.

Question 2.

Number of business within Kempton Park that failed to comply with Employment Equity legislation

1. Ziegler South Africa failed to comply with Section 20 in that the employer did not prepare and implement an Employment Equity Plan. Case filed with the Labour Court on the 29 of March 2018 under case number J1033/18.

2. South African Express Airways failed to comply with Section 20 in that the employer did not prepare and implement an Employment Equity Plan. Case secured with the Labour Court on the 20 August 2019 under case number J 1810/19. (Referral to court underway)

3. Improvair Environmental Solutions failed to comply with Section 20 in that the employer did not prepare and implement an Employment Equity Plan. (Referral to court underway)

Number of business within Isando that failed to comply with Employment Equity legislation

1. Revlon South Africa failed to comply with Section 20 in that the employer did not prepare and implement an Employment Equity Plan. Case secured with the Labour Court on the 19 December 2019 under case number J 2456/19. (Referral to court underway)

2. Reckitt Benckiser (PTY) LTD failed to comply with Section 20 in that the employer did not prepare and implement an Employment Equity Plan. (Referral to court underway)

Number of business within Edenvale that failed to comply with Employment Equity legislation

1. Questek Advanced Technologies (PTY) LTD failed to comply with Section 20 in that the employer did not prepare and implement an Employment Equity Plan. (Referral to court underway)

2.Brunational (PTY) LTD failed to comply with Section 20 in that the employer did not prepare and implement an Employment Equity Plan. (Referral to court underway)

The total number of employers inspected not complying is 7 and the amount cited in our claim is R 1.5 Million x 7 which equates to R 10.5 Million .

Reply:

The honourable member should be appraised that the Department of Employment and Labour uses the official statistics as produced by Statistics South Africa. Thus, the response below is based on StatsSA data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey. All reports are accessible through the StatsSA website.

(a) What percentage of vulnerable workers were granted permanent employment in the (i) 2013/14, (ii) 2014/15, (iii) 2015/16, (iv) 2016/17, (v) 2017/18 and (vii) 2018/19 financial years

According to Statistics South Africa results, the following proportions are disaggregated by gender. The statistics are published per quarter.

Table 1:

Conditions of employment (Nature of contract/ agreement by gender)	Oct-Dec 2013	Oct-Dec 2014	Oct-Dec 2015	Oct-Dec 2016	Oct-Dec 2017	Oct-Dec 2018	Oct-Dec 2019
	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand
Women (Total)	5 840	5 926	6 182	6 168	6 194	6 360	6 313
Limited duration	906	972	914	993	962	1 001	944
Permanent nature	3 491	3 590	3 716	3 645	3 641	3 753	3 781
% Permanent nature	59.7%	60.5%	60.1%	59.0%	59.7%	59.0%	59.8%
Men (Total)	7 196	7 310	7 556	7 477	7 584	7 631	7 555
Limited duration	1 069	1 037	1 045	897	936	959	902
Permanent nature	4 555	4 688	4 692	4 714	4 799	4 752	4 714
% Permanent nature	63%	64%	62%	63%	63%	62%	62,3%

Source: Statistics South Africa: Quarterly Labour Force Survey (Excluding unspecified duration)

(b) How many workers?

(i) lost their jobs

Table 2:

	Oct-Dec 2013	Oct-Dec 2014	Oct-Dec 2015	Oct-Dec 2016	Oct-Dec 2017	Oct-Dec 2018	Oct-Dec 2019
	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand
Number jobs lost	1 545	1 642	1 664	1 839	1 886	1 805	1 989

Source: Statistics South Africa: Quarterly Labour Force Survey

(ii) Which sectors had the biggest losses?

The sectors where the biggest losses occurred are the Trade and Construction industries over time.

Table 3:

	Oct-Dec 2013	Oct-Dec 2014	Oct-Dec 2015	Oct-Dec 2016	Oct-Dec 2017	Oct-Dec 2018	Oct-Dec 2019
	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand
Industry (Total)	2 114	2 182	2 186	2 499	2 492	2 379	2 596
Agriculture	79	134	117	123	135	115	147
Mining	39	32	42	54	36	47	38
Manufacturing	274	271	259	286	252	245	302
Utilities	7	18	16	14	20	12	15
Construction	314	347	355	429	401	399	409
Trade	506	508	518	522	579	576	578
Transport	111	111	98	128	102	115	134
Finance	301	302	262	346	368	327	376
Community and social services	271	269	302	348	355	319	364
Private households	211	190	216	249	245	223	231
Other	2			0		-	1

Source: Statistics South Africa: Quarterly Labour Force Survey

c) What is the percentage of female employees who were employed for the said period compared to males

Table 4:

Sex	Oct-Dec 2013	Oct-Dec 2014	Oct-Dec 2015	Oct-Dec 2016	Oct-Dec 2017	Oct-Dec 2018	Oct-Dec 2019
	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand
Women	6 670	6 676	6 995	7 031	7 071	7 250	7 220
Men	8 507	8 643	8 643	9 023	9 100	9 279	9 201
Total	15 177	15 319	15 638	16 054	16 171	16 529	16 421
% Female employees	43,9	43,6	44,7	43,8	43,7	43,9	44,0

Source: Statistics South Africa: Quarterly Labour Force Survey

d) which sector had the majority of female employees?

Table 5:

Sex	Oct-Dec 2013	Oct-Dec 2014	Oct-Dec 2015	Oct-Dec 2016	Oct-Dec 2017	Oct-Dec 2018	Oct-Dec 2019
	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand	Thousand
Women
Formal sector (Non-agricultural)	4 485	4 582	4 665	4 754	4 730	4 820	4 883
Informal sector (Non-agricultural)	971	924	1 019	977	1 084	1 113	1 064
Agriculture	210	228	288	305	267	285	302
Private households	1 004	942	1 023	995	990	1 032	971

Source: Statistics South Africa: Quarterly Labour Force Survey

(e) Which provinces (Table 6):

(i) had the highest rate of unemployed persons: From 2013-2016, it was the Free State province then the Eastern Cape from 2017-2019.

(ii) had a decline in unemployment: and/or : Varies in each quarter

(iii) remained stable for the said period? None. Unemployment rate fluctuated across all provinces in every quarter.

Table 6: Unemployment rate (official definition) by province

Province	Oct-Dec 2013	Oct-Dec 2014	Oct-Dec 2015	Oct-Dec 2016	Oct-Dec 2017	Oct-Dec 2018	Oct-Dec 2019
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Western Cape	21.0	22.9	19.4	20.5	19.5	19,3	20,9
Eastern Cape	27.8	29.1	27.4	28.4	35.1	36,1	39,5
Northern Cape	24.9	28.7	25.8	32.0	27.1	25,0	26,9
Free State	33.0	32.2	29.8	34.7	32.6	32,9	35,0
KwaZulu-Natal	19.9	20.8	20.5	23.9	24.1	25,6	25,.0
North West	27.3	25.2	23.9	26.5	23.9	26,6	28,8
Gauteng	25.2	24.6	27.6	28.6	29.1	29,0	30,8
Mpumalanga	27.2	26.6	25.7	31.0	28.9	32,0	33,6
Limpopo	16.9	15.9	19.8	19.3	19.6	16,5	23,1

Source: Statistics South Africa: Quarterly Labour Force Survey

Reply:

1. The department has never appointed a white hat hacker, instead the department requested State Information Technology Agency (SITA) Information Asset/host Security (ISS) to perform a vulnerability assessment using an automated tools to identify weaknesses which can be exploited by hackers and unauthorised attackers on the network (servers, workstations, printers and switches operating asset/host and packaged applications).

2. The department has embarked on a process of appointing a service provider for Cyber Security Services instead of appointing a white hat hacker. The scope of the appointed service provider will include continuous assessment of the security status of our ICT environment with routine vulnerability scans.

The project is planned to commence from the 1st of April 2020 once the service provider has been appointed, meaning that the appointed service provider will provide the services of the white hat hacker and more.