Parasites on the Payroll: DA demands action against crooked cadres who stole R41 million from hungry families
8 February 2021
Last week, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) revealed that no fewer than 6 140 government officials fraudulently claimed over R41 million from the Temporary Employment Relief Scheme (TERS) managed by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF). This revelation represents a shameful new low for the public service that should anger all honest and hard-working officials and taxpayers.
The TERS fund was created to support the millions of employees in the private sector whose livelihoods were devastated by the lockdown crisis. At the same time that workers and employers in the tourism, hospitality, alcohol, construction and other sectors of the private economy lost everything they had, all public servants continued to receive their full salaries.
Not one public servant lost their job due to lockdown. In fact, as the DA revealed last year, over 84 000 state employees continued to receive their full salaries despite not doing any work or having their workloads reduced significantly during lockdown.
It is hard to overstate the depravity of the 6 140 cadres who – despite receiving their full pay during lockdown while witnessing the profound suffering in the private sector – still decided to steal TERS money meant to put bread on the tables of hungry families.