The Chartered Institute for Business Accountants (CIBA) is calling for immediate reform and accountability within the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), following widespread reports from accountants and payroll professionals that the UIF system is non-functional, unaccountable, and economically harmful.
“Our members are on the frontlines of business compliance, and UIF is simply not working,” CIBA’s chief executive, Nicolaas van Wyk, said in a statement yesterday. “We’re receiving reports daily: the system is offline, offices are closed, queries go unanswered, and claims disappear into a void. Employers can’t comply, and workers can’t claim. It’s a crisis.”
CIBA is a professional body and South African Qualifications Authority-recognised controlling body for accountants, tax practitioners, and financial managers in South Africa and Namibia.
CIBA says it represents more than 13 000 accountants, many of whom serve small businesses that are most vulnerable to compliance risks.
According to the statement, practitioners are reporting:
- Months-long outages of the uFiling platform.
- Unreachable call centres and dead-end email addresses.
- System failures that are forcing some to use unlawful intermediaries to process UIF registrations and keep businesses running.
- Reputational and legal risks, with clients blaming accountants for delays beyond their control.
- Unprocessed maternity, illness, and retrenchment claims, leaving workers without income.
“In many cases, members have resorted to standing in queues at UIF offices, only to find them closed due to water shortages, power cuts, or absenteeism, with no alternative support channels,” the statement said.
CIBA says it has launched a campaign to press for reform of the UIF. This includes:
- Collecting evidence of failures at the Fund from business accountants and payroll practitioners via a feedback form.
- Compiling a formal legal brief to be submitted to the Minister of Employment and Labour and the department.
- Preparing for legal action in collaboration with other professional bodies and employer organisations.
- Engaging the media and public to spotlight the impact on SMEs, workers, and accounting professionals.
- Mobilising its members through possible public demonstrations, petitions, and partnership forums.
CIBA is also investigating collaboration with civil society organisations and select trade unions to pursue a multi-sectoral approach to intervention.
In December last year, Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) called for the UIF to be placed under administration.
Jonathan Goldberg, BUSA’s Labour Market Chamber convenor at the National Economic, Development and Labour Council, said it had been almost a year since the initial calls by organised business and labour for the UIF to be placed under administration.
“Despite promises of a major overhaul by the new Minister of Employment and Labour, Makhosazana Meth, nothing has changed,” said Goldberg. It was well documented that claimants are often shuffled from pillar to post, waiting months or even years for benefit payouts because of inefficiencies at the UIF.
