Disabled and widows battle for years for state payouts

Gauteng widow Ingrid Langenhoven barely has time to grieve after losing her husband, James, to cancer last month.

She is too stressed over the mounting R300,000 debt she incurred for her husband's medical expenses after his claim to the Department of Labour's compensation fund remained unresolved for three years.

Langenhoven had to move in with her sister because she couldn't afford the rent on her home, and now faces being blacklisted for debt.

She said her husband had "fought so hard to hang on" but had succumbed to a rare cancer, mesothelioma, contracted as a result of working with asbestos as a joiner in the navy. She said the state-run fund, meant to assist workers who fall sick or are injured or disabled on the job, had failed them.

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Department spokesman Dikentsho Seabo, however, said its records showed the claim was paid out to the family. The fund refused, however, to give details of payouts it had made.

The R50-billion fund has been plagued by allegations of corruption, mismanagement and irregular expenditure.

Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu was scathing about the fund in his 2015-16 report, noting systemic maladministration and parlous record-keeping. He issued a disclaimer, the worst audit outcome.

"Management did not implement adequate internal controls to maintain records of benefits," Makwetu said.

This week, the office of the public protector said it had received more than 130 complaints about the fund in the past two years alone.

Public protector spokesman Oupa Segalwe said complaints had been received nationally about "undue delays" in the compensation of sick and injured claimants.

"In 2015 and 2016, the public protector met the director-general of labour and the compensation commissioner, who presented a turnaround strategy aimed at improving service delivery. Although the numbers have gone down since then, we are still receiving a lot of complaints of undue delays," Segalwe said.

Although Seabo acknowledged challenges of late payments to claimants - citing incomplete documentation or changes of address - she said the fund had processed more than 138,000 claims totalling R2.7-billion in 2015-16, and more than 162,000 worth R3.7-billion so far this year.    

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"There are a number of claims that remain unadjudicated or where liability for the claim has not been accepted due to outstanding documentation. These claims are in excess of 70,000 and some date as far back as 2011," Seabo said.

Despite repeated warnings from unions, experts and lawyers that the fund is failing the vulnerable working class, Langenhoven's case is not isolated.

The Sunday Times also approached the department seeking the status of these claims:

• Limpopo mineworker Lucas Marabola, who lost his arm in an accident at work in 2014;

• Caroline Lavery, of Cape Town, who has not received her husband Grant's pension after he was killed in a freak accident while working in a truck yard in 2014; and

• Leslie Fourie, of Durban, who lost his home and life savings after sustaining a debilitating spinal injury in a fall in an ice-cream factory in 2000. Fourie, a plant engineer, underwent a series of operations.

Seabo said the department' s records showed that Marabola's claim was still pending because his employer had not submitted forms. However, the Sunday Times is in possession of the 2014 claim forms which Marabola insists were submitted.

Seabo said Lavery's claim had been resolved and was being paid out monthly. Lavery denies this. She said that what was labelled an "IT problem" had persisted for nearly two years, forcing her to move to the UK with her two children.

"I am so angry that this claim has not been paid out, and indeed the lack of assistance. Nobody seems to want to help. It is almost three years and we are no further forward. The money would be a great help for my children and myself, a nest egg for their future," she said.

Fourie has documents from the fund accepting full liability and it paid more than R1-million for his treatment, but in 2015 the fund rejected his claim on the basis that his fall had not caused his disability. It offered R6071 for "soft tissue injuries".

Langenhoven, Lavery and Fourie have retained lawyers to help them resolve their claims.

Cosatu spokesman Sizwe Pamla said: "Unfortunately, workers are suffering and we believe the fund does not care about them."

wicksj@sundaytimes.co.za