According to Tony Lamati, the Acting Director for Unemployment Insurance in the Province, he is happy with the turnover and his worry is that his team was in the area last week. He said the Department is proactively engaging employers to ease the pressure on their service points.

“Since the off-season has started and many employers are cutting their workforce, we are extending our hand to big employers so we can have an arrangement to collect the UIF applications from them, rather than people having to come here for longer periods" " he said.

The Department of Employment and Labour in the Western Cape along with the Department of Social Development's South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) took their much-needed services to the community of Tulbagh in the Western Cape Province.

The two-legged service delivery campaign which started in Ceres on 19 and concludes today at Tulbagh, saw more than 250 people going through the service points of the departments for services ranging from labour to social grants.

The Department's Public Employment Services registered more than 85 work-seekers and 90 went through the career counselling session.  On the other hand, the big winner was the Unemployment Fund service point which saw 209 people registering, more than 158 applications received, 9 payments made, and 46 inquiries attended to.

The Compensation Fund had six inquiries and the Inspections and Enforcement Services had five inquiries and three complaints.

In addition to services provided by the Departments, Standard Bank, and EasyPay Bank were handy, assisting clients who did not have bank accounts or their account numbers for Unemployment Insurance benefit payments.

According to the Deputy Director of Labour Centre Operations, Marius Murray, who manages the region, the service delivery campaign was a success as it offered many people the opportunity to submit their Unemployment Insurance Fund claim applications, enquire about their progress, and also allow work-seekers to register with Public Employment Services on their Employment Services of South Africa database for job prospects. “This eliminated the burden of these people having to pay for transport to our labour centre in Worcester or the satellite office in Ceres", he said.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Teboho Thejane

Departmental Spokesperson

082 697 0694/ teboho.thejane@labour.gov.za

-ENDS-

Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour

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