Cape Town - The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has moved up a gear to root out fraud within the organisation, UIF commissioner Boas Seruwe said on Wednesday.
A number of UIF employees have been dismissed and arrested recently, he told the National Assembly's labour committee.
The fraud, which took place from April 2010 to date, cost the fund R4m.
"This fraud either takes the form of work and draw, where people work and continue to draw UIF benefits, or employees of the fund siphoning money off the system," Seruwe said.
In total, 286 cases of fraud were detected during this period. In KwaZulu-Natal, four labour department officials had been arrested.
In the Eastern Cape, two employees had been dismissed, with the Hawks pursuing criminal cases, as was the case with an employee in the Northern Cape.
Seruwe said the message to employees involved in fraud or intending to do so is quite clear - "the long arm of the law will catch you if you defraud the system".