Section 4 (1) (d) UIF Contributions Act 4 of 2002 does exclude certain types of foreign employees from contributing, in circumstances where they enter SA for a contract of service, apprenticeship or learnership of a fixed duration, and on termination of such service or learnership they must return to their home country by law or as per the contract.
If there is no legal or contractual obligation on the employer to repatriate the employee to his home country on termination of the contract, then the exclusion will not apply and UIF contribution would have to be deducted and paid over.
Can foreigners claim UIF in SA?
As to the claiming of benefits, the UIF Act does not specifically exclude non-residents in section 14, and the benefits seem to apply to all “contributors”, in section 12 and 16 who comply with the provisions of the UIF Act.
A “contributor” is merely defined in Section 1 as a natural person, who is or who was employed, to whom the Act applies and who have made contributions.
We are also not aware of any legislative prohibitions for permanently employed foreign nationals who have a passport, relevant working permits and are UIF contributors to claim UIF Benefits.