Businesses in the tourism industry have complained that foreign national employees have not received payment from their COVID-19 UIF Beneficiary Process Temporary Employers Relief Scheme (UIF TERS) applications.

Natasha Ludeke Mostert from Harties Boat Company told Tourism Update that its Zimbabwean employees had not been paid their April and May UIF TERS but had been paying UIF contributions for years. “Upon following up with UIF via email, I was informed that there is a delay and that they are working on it,” she said. “We have had to take out a loan to support our Zimbabwean employees as their families rely on them to survive.”

“No payments for foreign nationals and no payment for May have been received. I spoke to them about the system stating ‘no employees found’ as I had updated the details for the company for May application. They said it was a ‘system error’,” said MD of White Pearl Resorts, Cordelia Masher.

“I was asked to send a certified copy our foreign national employee’s passport and work permit, yet still nothing has been received from UIF TERS.”

HR Manager of Eldo Coaches, Asma Moolla, said the April submission was a complete nightmare with foreign national employees only getting paid their April payment at the end of May. “It's a slow, tedious process and no rhyme or reason to it,” said Moolla.

UIF Deputy Director of Communication, Lungelo Mkamba, explained to Tourism Update that many foreign national workers were not declared with the UIF, but there had been UIF TERS payments made to foreign national workers.

“We appeal to employers to declare them via our uFiling system so that the COVID-19 TERS system can recognise them and process their claims.”

Mkamba said from April to June 8, 114 059 foreign national employees and 28 509 foreign national employers had been paid their UIF TERS. An amount of R534.5m (€27.7m) has been paid from UIF TERS to foreign nationals working in South Africa.

“We have also come up with a solution where the South African Revenue Services assists us with validating all employees we can’t find on our system, including foreign nationals. Those who pass the SARS validation and are declared on uFiling are paid.”

“UIF is working with the Department of Home Affairs to validate foreign nationals’ records prior to payment and this is putting strain on the application process and causing delays,” said COO of SATSA, Hannelie du Toit.