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.