UIF suffers setback due to network problems

The benefit scheme is expected to provide much needed relief to employees, who have been laid off work or unable to earn an income due to Covid-19 pandemic.

The system for the scheme has been undergoing through test runs since last week. It was due to go live on Tuesday but a damaged fibre link between the UIF’s offices and the State Information and Technology Agency (SITA) affected those plans.

“We would like to apologise to all our stakeholders and particularly our clients for this unfortunate turn of events and the resultant delays. We are doing everything in our power to ensure that the problem is resolved today so that we can start processing May applications immediately,” UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping said on Wednesday.

He said the fault of connectivity in Pretoria is due to a damaged fibre cable that links the UIF to the SITA’s datacenter.

The UIF said once the link has been restored, it will do all it can to try and catch up on the time lost.

The UIF’s ICT system development team is on standby to ensure that as soon as the connectivity is re-established the system goes live.

“We have received an avalanche of complaints because of this and we understand how this could be frustrating to our clients and stakeholders. I would like to assure each and every one of those who have been negatively affected that this was beyond our control.

“It should be noted that in the last two months we have had peak traffic as a result of our lockdown relief benefits. In general we have managed to keep our heads above water under those circumstances and there is no reason why we will not push ourselves to do our utmost to catch up,” Maruping said.

The UIF will make a public announcement once the system has been restored.