Ramaphosa Faces Union Backlash After Cancelling TERS Payments

President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing a massive backlash from workers’ unions and businesses over his decision to cancel the UIF COVID-19 Temporary Employment Relief Scheme (TERS).

Unions and businesses expressed shock at the decision taken by Ramaphosa’s National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC), which announced that the UIF’s TERS program will be coming to an abrupt end, cancelling payments to millions of unemployed South Africans who have come to rely on the payments ever since lockdown restrictions were put in place in the country in March.

The country’s biggest trade union (COSATU) has now expressed concern that Ramaphosa doesn’t have control over the situation, considering that Ramaphosa assured that TERS payments would continue just a month ago.

“We cannot afford to have a system where a public commitment by the president can be ignored or rejected by some unelected and unaccountable group of bureaucrats,” said Cosatu national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla, according to IOL. “This is a slippery slope, and it will soon raise the question of who is in charge and whether the centre is really holding.”

She also spoke out against Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi’s failure to deliver UIF and TERS payments to unemployed South Africans efficiently.

“This administration is becoming more unreliable and untrustworthy by the day and this trust deficit is a big problem for social partners who work and engage with it daily,” he said.

“We are still going to get clarity on this. The decision to cancel the fund has been the decision of the NCCC,” Nxesi’s spokesperson Sabelo Mali said.

However, Pamla says that the cancellation of TERS will actually end up costing even more in the long-run.

“… this does not help the UIF because these retrenched employees will now claim from the UIF to be paid the full retrenchment for the next 12 months, which costs more.”

Business for SA also described the decision as “ill-advised and irrational”, saying “If government believes the remaining level 1 restrictions are necessary, Ters must be retained.”

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