“We would like to apologise to all our stakeholders and particularly our clients for this unfortunate turn of events and the resultant delays. We are doing everything in our power to ensure that the problem is resolved today so that we can start processing May applications immediately," Maruping said.   

"The fault of connectivity in Pretoria is due to a damaged fibre cable that links the UIF to the SITA’s datacenter."

The UIF said once the link was restored it would do everything possible to make up for lost time, and acknowledged that it had received "an avalanche of complaints" because people were unable to apply for Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) funding.

"It should be noted that in the last two months we have had peak traffic as a result of our lockdown relief benefits. In general we have managed to keep our heads above water under those circumstances and there is no reason why we will not push ourselves to do our utmost to catch up."

Earlier in the day, the Democratic Alliance (DA) called on the minister of labour and employment, Thulas Nxesi, to explain the worsening calamity at the fund.

"When the benefit finally arrives, it will be too little too late. Employers and employees have bills to pay and families to feed right now. They cannot wait," said DA labour spokesman, Michael Cardo. 

The UIF had so far paid out about R15 billion of the R40 billion allocated for TERS benefits to around three million workers, according to a statement by Nxesi late on Tuesday.

However, the DA said 76,000 employers and 559,000 employees had claims worth R2.3 billion rejected.

Matthew Parks, from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), said the federation too was worried, describing the predicament of workers as "very painful".

The UIF has about R135 billion in its portfolio at the moment, about half of it in government bonds. 

Nxesi this week amended a directive pertaining to the TERS scheme to allow workers whose employers had not registered them for UIF or failed to pay the necessary contributions to apply to it for support.

The concession followed a legal challenge from organisations representing domestic workers and farm labourers.

Parks said COSATU was expecting a briefing on Thursday on the sustainability of the UIF and the possibility of reinforcing its capacity.

African News Agency (ANA)