The Department of Employment and Labour’s Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) in the North West will from Monday embark on a service delivery drive aimed at reducing long queues at Labour Centres, and to reach out to areas that are far from the centres.

The service delivery drive is made possible by the procurement of eight UIF buses that were launched in June by the Minister of Employment and Labour, and have since been distributed to the different provinces.

These buses will be used for the provision of the department’s essential services.

They are equipped with a server that will allow the rendering of all departmental services possible from anywhere in the province.

According to the Deputy Director: Unemployment Insurance Fund in the North West, Selete Qhamakoane, they will start using the bus from the month of August and they will target the visiting points that the department has been utilising to meet clients in different areas around the province.

“Our visiting points are not formal offices and normally when we go to these points, we only collect documents and list enquiries for further processing at the office. In most instances, we are not able to revert to clients with responses due to time constraints and other challenges.

“This results in clients having to go to the office. With the bus, we will provide the clients with on-the-spot service, a service similar to the one offered at the office, therefore they will no longer need to go back to the offices,” Qhamakoane said.

It is also anticipated that the use of the bus will fast-track the provision of services in areas that are highly congested such as Rustenburg, Brits and Klerksdorp.

The bus will travel throughout the province monthly from Monday to all the visiting points as per the regular schedule that will be communicated with clients.

Source: South African Government News Agency