Acting UIF commissioner Malebo Mabitje-Thompson says the UIF portal, currently faulty, is expected to be operational by November.

• The UIF portal, currently faulty, is expected to be operational by November, says acting commissioner Dr Malebo Mabitje-Thompson.
• Migration to a new IT system has resulted in chaos and a backlog of 3.5 million claims.
• The UIF paid R18 billion in benefits in 2024/25, with millions relying on its services annually.

The Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF) faulty portal will be up and running by November, acting commissioner Malebo Mabitje-Thompson said on Monday.

Mabitje-Thompson stated that the UIF was dealing with about 3.5 million back-log claims, and migrating them to a new IT system was no small feat.

Last week, GroundUp reported that thousands of unemployed South Africans could be unknowingly submitting claims through an outdated website.

The UlF’s uFiling system was migrated to a new platform years ago. However, the old platform remains live, and appears high up in online search results, and gives no indication that it is no longer valid.

Millions of unemployed South Africans rely on UIF benefits each year.

According to its annual report, the fund paid R18 billion in benefits during the 2024/25 financial year.

Mabitje-Thompson said resolving the issue with the portal was not just an ICT matter.

“When you migrate from one system to another, it’s not just a matter of ICT; of course, ICT is still a challenge in South Africa. We are still trying to adapt. The ICT is in our departments, but we also need to be meticulous when we migrate from one system to another.”

She added that this would not be a matter of a month or two.

Mabitje-Thompson said the total migration had also been delayed due to disputes with a former service provider that challenged the supply chain or tender process.

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Asked why resolving an IT issue was taking six months, she likened UIF to a bank.

“There’s nothing different from what a bank would do, but you wouldn’t know what the banks are doing in the background when they are upgrading systems. So, six months may look like a long time, but in that time, you must develop a system.

“There has to be user testing; you have to go out and sample a couple of people, get them to use the system, so that you can debug the system because you are dealing with an institution that, on a nine-month basis, you would be paying into the economy around R15 billion.

“So, you can’t, cut it short and short-circuit it and say because it’s in government six months is not enough, the banks will go longer, the insurance companies will go longer, UIF is an insurance company,” said Mabitje-Thompson, who was appointed in late 2024 following the suspension and subsequent dismissal of former commissioner Teboho Maruping for gross misconduct.