The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) has confirmed that 23 000-24 000 TERS claims have not been processed and remain unpaid due to system failure.

TBCSA CEO, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, told Tourism Update that at a meeting attended by the Commissioner of the Unemployment Insurance Fund on Wednesday evening (August 25) system error codes and unpaid claims had been red-flagged. Tshivhengwa described a case of “total system failure”, a hard blow for tourism workers who were relying on the relief.

“We are dealing with the situation. The UIF admits to what its system cannot do,” he said.

All hands on deck

The TBCSA said it would go back to member associations, which include Asata, to pull together details about members who had not been paid out and who had experienced error codes when filing TERS claims.

During Asata’s virtual AGM last week, CEO Otto de Vries revealed that at least 33 error codes had been reported so far. “The actual execution, the approvals, is not working. And we are starting to get reports that travel industry claims are getting refused because travel is not covered under a certain period. If you have been denied, you have to apply for a review. And then, those disappear! Call centres have not been taking calls,” said De Vries.

Tshivhengwa also identified as ‘serious problems’ the inability to submit pdf files and call centre operations. “The system has been a total pain for the industry. We have lots of people that still have pending payments and error codes that cannot be explained, and a call centre that doesn’t work. There has to be a remedy.”