Retrenchment Recess:
Episode 7
Sitting in the UIF line online…
Following my previous post, a few things have happened.
One of these was not the UIF fulfilling their pretty basic function and paying me the money I’m due. One would ordinarily start a sentence like that with “sadly” or “unforunately”, but I don’t even have the capacity to feel sad or unfortunate at the moment. I am enraged, in a strange calm and calculating kind of way. The UIF and its incompetence is an utter disgrace, and the people who work there should be ashamed of themselves and their superiors. And we should all be ashamed of the government, because they are letting us all down!
Let’s be clear – this post is not essentially about me and the money I am owed by the UIF. It is about a matter in principle. It is about the fact that there are countless poor people out there who are shoved down and trodden on by the government when they’re at their most vulnerable.
So, despite the fact that I started every conversation at the UIF centre in Randburg with, “I’ve applied online, but…”, it took multiple sessions of wasting-of-my-life there before I was told that they can’t process online application queries there and rudely sent away with an email address scribbled on a torn-off corner of paper. This address was for Deon van Niekerk, Assistant Director, e-operations…