The UIF Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) was designed to save livelihoods — paying workers whose employers could not sustain operations during lockdown. Instead, it became one of the largest social grant fraud operations in South African history.
**The Scale of Disbursement**
R57.4 billion was disbursed through TERS to approximately 240,000 entities. The scheme was implemented at emergency speed, prioritising rapid disbursement over verification. This created a fraud vector of staggering proportions.
**Government Employees Double-Dipping**
The most brazen category of fraud involved 6,000 government employees across 24 departments who fraudulently claimed TERS benefits while continuing to receive their full government salaries. The estimated value: R350 million stolen by the very officials responsible for administering public funds.
**Ghost Claims**
Fraudsters submitted claims using the identities of prison inmates, deceased persons, and former employees. The weak verification systems could not distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent applications, and payments flowed out.
**The R161 Million Syndicate**
In December 2025, the SIU and Hawks conducted raids in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng targeting a R161 million TERS fraud syndicate. The operation targeted 16 companies and 35 individuals: - **Nhlakanipho Mngomezulu** (Lubelo Hlomuka Holdings): R15.9M received — alleged mastermind - **Thamsanqa Madlala** (Bokoharama Construction): R18M received - **Nakomang Trading Enterprise**: R19.2M received - **Yolanda Nombuso Mgobo**: R18.6M received/distributed
**Convictions — Few and Late**
While billions were stolen, convictions have been rare: - Free State woman sentenced for TERS ghost workers fraud - Couple convicted for R10 million TERS fraud - Fraudster convicted for stealing R5 million from UIF COVID fund (December 2023)
These individual convictions, totalling tens of millions, represent a fraction of the systemic fraud.
**Recovery Efforts**
- R229 million recovered from irregular TERS payments - R99.7 million in acknowledgments of debt from companies - R3.4 billion in incorrect/invalid UIF disbursements recovered after AG's first special report
**The Systemic Failure**
The TERS fraud exposed fundamental weaknesses in government's ability to deliver emergency social support: no real-time verification against government payroll systems, no cross-referencing with Home Affairs identity databases, no post-disbursement auditing capacity. The same systems are still in place — the next emergency will face the same vulnerabilities.