Labour Department not will to assist

In March 2020 the tourism company that I was employed at was directly impacted by the pandemic Covid 19 and as a result all staff was retrenched.

Since then I have been at the Labour department at the Goodwood office 5 times already from early morning until late in the afternoon, but with no success. They keep telling me that a notification will be sent and that my claim will be paid within 2 week. This has been happening since August 2020 it is now July 2021 and I still have received nothing yet.

It's become apparent that staff at the Goodwood offices are not keen on assisting me during this difficult and challenging time as they are unable to provide me with a reasonable explanation as to why I have not yet received anything yet and seems extremely hasty to keep the line moving onto the next person; sending me away with the promise of payment within the next 2 weeks. Almost a year has gone by and this promise has not been kept.

Since physical visits to the Goodwood office has been unsuccessful, I started phoning the UIF contact center ***) at least twice a week ever since. I finally got hold of a consultant at their Bellville office however my call got cut due to insufficient airtime as a result of holding the line for 35 minutes, waiting for someone to answer. I had to end up borrowing money to buy airtime which turned out to be a waste of time, effort and money.

I have exhausted every avenue (physical visitation to the UIF offices, e-mail & telephone) in an effort to have this resolved but it seems that no one is bothered to assist me with my struggle. I am a husband and a father to a one year old little boy and lost my job a month after my son was born and am not able to provide for my family. It is my right as a South African citizen to draw UIF and also to claim from the COVID benefit in place for all citizens affected by the pandemic.

I sincerely hope and pray that the person reading this will be able to assist me and I thank you in advance for taking time to read my comment.

Regards HH Hector