This as owners of township businesses, who attempted to access the Department of Small Business Development’s debt relief fund during the lockdown, determined while applying for the fund that they do not qualify, due to the requirement of a UIF reference number. One such an entrepreneur is Keke Supi, who owns a popular car wash and food court K-LA-K in Bochabela township in Bloemfontein. Supi says when President Cyril Ramaphosa first announced the 21-day lockdown, local business owners and informal traders conditioned themselves for this, but the two-week extension caught him and others off guard.

Supi highlights some of the hallmarks of the township economy. He says a lot of informal traders and businesses do not have the privilege of having a bookkeeper for their financial statements, let alone register employees for UIF. He says it would have been helpful if government created a second option/application process for businesses that do not have a UIF reference number.

This means Supi and others do not qualify for the UIF’s Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme, previously known as the National Disaster Benefit either. 

In early April, OFM News interviewed the Provincial Chief Inspector at the Labour Department’s Bloemfontein office, Manelisi Luxande, on the Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme. He stressed at the time that only employers registered with the UIF would gain access to the relief, suggesting that they first pay their employees and then claim the fee in bulk from the department. “Employers are not allowed to shortchange their employees by saying salaries are not payable due to the lockdown,” said Luxande sternly.

The Department of Small Business Development is yet to comment on the matter and is expected to do so soon.

OFM News