Unemployment Insurance Fund commissioner Teboho Maruping says he is relying on his minister to hold the line against unwelcome incursions by the government into the UIF's R133-billion surplus. The political head of the UIF is Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant. With government coffers empty, the National Treasury is under growing pressure to find money wherever it can to plug debt chasms in the public sector and fund President Jacob Zuma's free education and nuclear dreams. There is persistent talk that the Treasury might, should or could tap into the UIF's cash mountain. "I am trusting my minister," says Maruping. "In my discussions with her she is quite clear what she wants to do. She will engage the parties as necessary." He says he made the position of the UIF quite clear when Judge Jonathan Heher, who chaired the Heher commission on higher education fees, suggested that the government leverage the UIF surplus. "I appeared before his commission to explain what these surplus funds ...
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