Local residents are calling on the Department of Employment and Labour to increase their UIF bus services as they feel that these services are more efficient than standing in the queue at the established offices.
On Wednesday, 5 October, people who needed to apply for their Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) were getting discouraged by yet another endlessly long queue in front of the Makhado Labour centre. For some of them, this had already been their umpteenth attempt to make it to the front. When Limpopo Mirror visited the labour office at around 13:30 that day, some of the people were looking hungry and tired and were losing hope of getting served at all.
"I have been queuing here since 03:30 this morning and I still have not been served. My appointment date is today, but I am not sure if I will make it to the front in time," said a 59-year-old woman from the Nzhelele area.
The woman claims that she has been trying to apply for her UIF since April this year. "I am now running out of transport money for such visits. The only way I can get money is to borrow from loan sharks, but it comes with interest," she said.
Julius Maginga claims to have been visiting the office for almost a year now without any luck. "The labour officials are trying to put the blame on load shedding, but the power was switched back on after 11:00, and yet, between then and 12:00, I did not see anyone being served," he said.
According to the department's spokesperson in Limpopo, Ms Lerato Mashamba, only two officers are currently available to serve clients at the Makhado Labour office as the rest of the staff are on leave. She said that their systems were constantly on and off, hence very few clients were served per day. In addition to these challenges, water shortages and load shedding also affect services at the labour office.
Mashamba further said that the UIF bus was not exclusively available to the Limpopo Province only. "It travels all over the country, but we will inform the community when we will be coming back," she said.