The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) is worried about the safety of its employees after one was threatened with death while auditing a company that benefited from the Covid-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme ( Ters).

On Friday, UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping said the fund had been alerted by “a law-enforcement agency that an employer had made an anonymous threat to kill the UIF official if the audit proceeded” earlier this week. Maruping said the audits on employers were part of the UIF’s “follow the money” project to ensure the right amounts of money were paid over to workers at the right time and that employers did not abuse the money.

“The fund will not be deterred from auditing all employers who benefited from the R62bn paid to date through Covid-19 Ters,” said Maruping.

“As the UIF, we view the threat in a very serious light. Equally, we are gravely shocked and disturbed by this threat against the official who is a dedicated public servant, committed to ensuring that workers’ monies are not abused.”

Maruping said, since the inception of Covid-19 Ters, the fund had observed with “great disappointment” how some employers received monies but failed to pay it over to their workers.

“In some instances, we learnt with disgust that employers were paying over only part of the monies and not the full amounts and that companies were using funds for other than the intended purposes.

“Therefore, these malicious and criminal acts to interfere with our audit process will not be tolerated and we shall continue doing our work without fear or favour.”

Maruping said 10 people had been convicted and sentenced to direct imprisonment or suspended sentences for fraud, theft, and money laundering in relation to the Covid-19 Ters.

“The most prominent case was a matter where 20 years' direct imprisonment was meted out to bookkeeper Lindelani Gumede for R11m worth of Covid-19 Ters fraud.”

“Another 30 suspects have also been arrested for Covid-19 Ters-related offences and the fund anticipates more arrests as phase 2 of the ‘follow the money’ project, which started in July 2022, continues.”

TimesLIVE