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The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) welcomes the arrest of 37-year-old Phathiswa Bodlani for allegedly swindling the Fund’s Covid-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (Covid-19 TERS) of over R1 million.  

It is alleged that between April 2020 and August 2020, Bodlani, through her company, applied for Covid-19 TERS for 49 workers and received R1 009 338.

However, through the UIF’s “follow the money” process which entails auditing all Covid-19 payments, it was discovered that some of the people she applied for were not Bodlani’s employees. A fraud case was subsequently opened at the Durban Central Police Station and joint investigations by the UIF’s auditors and the HAWKS’ investigators led to the arrest of the suspect yesterday, 5 April 2022.

Bodlani appeared at the Durban Specialised Commercial Crime Court yesterday, 6 April 2022, and she was released on R5000 bail. The case was postponed to 20 May 2022.  At least 20 suspects have been arrested for Covid-19 TERS related fraud so far, and more are expected in months to come.

UIF Commissioner, Teboho Maruping, has welcomed this latest Covid-19 TERS related arrest and praised the Fund’s auditors and HAWKS for their rigorous toils to bring the suspect to justice.

 “Our joint efforts with law enforcement agencies at the Fusion Centre are truly bearing fruit and I hope this latest arrest serves as a severe deterrent to other would-be criminals that you will be apprehended and face the consequences. We will not rest until we have followed and accounted for every cent and rand that was paid through Covid-19 TERS and where wrongdoing is uncovered, the law must take its course,” said Maruping.

 The UIF’s Covid-19 TERS Scheme was established in March 2020 to save jobs and ease the financial burden on businesses and workers who lost income during the various levels of the lockdown. To date, R64 billion has been paid to 5,7 million workers. 

Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour