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The Citizen reports that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has so far paid out a total of R16.5 billion in Covid-19 relief funds.
In the view of experts, that has been a dramatic improvement in capacity for a state agency that has, in the past few years, struggled to efficiently deliver services such as maternity leave benefits. But, University of the North West academic Andre Duvenhage believes this sense of efficient state social assistance machinery is “of temporary nature”. He commented that in times of a crisis affecting the population, particularly the poor, government could not afford to fail. “It is time to save face because there is a lot at stake. It also opens up major challenges because it is easy to spend money but it could be a huge challenge to generate that money. We will pay the price in the future,” Duvenhage said. This demonstrated how capacity was not the issue but rather a questions of will and ethics, he opined, adding that people should demand the same level of service post-Covid-19 and take no excuses. According to Solly Masilela, independent socioeconomic and political analyst, it would seem the government was only able to deliver under pressure in a chaotic or abnormal situation that conveniently suspended the procurement procedures.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sipho Mabena on page 3 of The Citizen of 9 June 2020
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