Category: COVID-19 Corona Virus

COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus has killed 114 more people on Sunday, pushing the death toll to 6 769.

Of the additional deaths, 34 were reported in Limpopo, 30 in the Western Cape, 29 in Gauteng, 12 in KwaZulu-Natal, seven in the Eastern Cape and two in the Northern Cape.

Meanwhile, there are now 445 433 confirmed cases of which 11 233 were reported in the last 24 hours, Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize said.

The hardest-hit province is Gauteng with 160 154 confirmed infections, followed by the Western Cape (92 079), Eastern Cape (73 585) and KwaZulu-Natal (64 061).

Free State has 16 482 confirmed cases, North West (17 338), Mpumalanga (11 008), Limpopo (7 076) and 50 are unknown.

The recovery rate stands at 59.5% after 265 077 have been cured since the outbreak in March, while 2 773 778 tests have been conducted to date.

Mkhize said government was still concerned about the possible spike of infections in August.

“The pattern varies according to provinces. The Western Cape numbers are now reducing. KZN is the one that is now on the rise.”

The Minister has once against called on South Africans to wear masks, practice physical distancing, sanitise and wash their hands.

According to the World Health Organisation, there are 15 785 641 cases worldwide and 640 016 deaths.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has been discharged from hospital.

Mantashe who tested positive for COVID-19 on 14 July 2020 was discharged from hospital on Sunday evening.

“We are grateful that Minister Mantashe is now at home with his family and on his way to a full recovery.”

We wish our other colleagues in the Executive, and all other South Africans battling this virus a speedy recovery. We also extend our condolences to the many families who have lost their loved ones due to the coronavirus,” said Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu.

The Minister was admitted to hospital on 20 July 2020, for further medical attention and monitoring.

Though Mantashe has been discharged, he has been advised by his medical team to stay home for another seven days.

South Africa reported the highest death toll in a single day, with 572 people dying of COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Of the additional deaths, 400 were recorded in the Eastern Cape, 114 from Gauteng, 43 from the Free State, 35 from the Western Cape and 18 from KwaZulu-Natal.

This has pushed the fatality rate to 5 940 since the pandemic.

Meanwhile, there are now 394 948 infections after 13 150 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

The worst-hit provinces include Gauteng with 144 582 cases followed by the Western Cape with 87 847, Eastern Cape 67 818 and KwaZulu-Natal 50 521.

The four provinces have the highest recorded deaths as well, leading is the Western Cape with 2 752 fatalities, followed by the Eastern Cape with 1 345, Gauteng with 1 156 and KwaZulu-Natal 477.

SAnews reported on Wednesday that the Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, chastised the Eastern Cape for under-reporting deaths during his visit in the province.

“MEC, I’m going to ask your team to continue to report deaths as they come and don’t wait or say you haven’t found all of them. You’ll never find them all. Just give us the report of the deaths on a daily basis,” Mkhize said to Eastern Cape Health MEC Sindiswa Gomba.

While he said he understood that there were challenges, he urged the provincial health department not to go by a day without accounting for COVID-19 deaths as it breeds misrepresentation.

“It does give us a bit of distortion. You suddenly do not have deaths for one day then afterwards you have 400 deaths. It becomes the problem in terms of understanding the distribution,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the number of people who have recuperated stands at 229 175, which translates to 58% recovery rate, while 2 585 474 tests have been conducted.

According to the World Health Organisation, there are 14 765 256 cases and 612 054 deaths worldwide.

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) says it has begun with double payments for the outstanding R350 grant for June and July.

“This is meant to avoid a situation where beneficiaries of the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant have to make two trips to the Post Office and to eradicate the backlog of payments,” SASSA said on Wednesday.

The agency said the move has been met with much appreciation and excitement on social media.

In the statement, SASSA said these double payments are in the process of being transferred into people’s bank accounts as of this week.

“Payments for those who receive their money through the Post Office will be done progressively throughout the month to try and limit the numbers of people at the Post Offices on a daily basis.”

However, the agency is pleading with the beneficiaries who do not have bank accounts and will receive their money at the Post Office to only go there once they have received an SMS saying their money is ready for collection.

Meanwhile, the agency said it has already reconsidered applications made in May against updated databases received resulting in about 1 million additional applicants being approved for the special allowance.

“This will drastically reduce the number of potential appeals and will also cushion the affected beneficiaries against the current impact of the lockdown,” SASSA added.

The grant is meant to help those who are unemployed and receiving no other assistance.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (Afdb) has approved a loan of approximately R5 billion ($288 million) to the government of South Africa, as the country battles one of the largest COVID-19 caseloads in the world.

South Africa confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on 5 March 2020 and is currently the most affected in Africa, and among the top five in the world in terms of confirmed cases.

The country reported the highest death toll in a single day, with 572 people dying of COVID-19 on Wednesday. There are now 394 948 infections.

According to the Afdb, the loan falls under the bank’s $10 billion COVID-19 Response Facility and will finance South Africa’s COVID-19 Response Support Program, it further represents the bank’s first ever budget support to the country.

The operation is designed as a Crisis Response Budget Support Operation prepared following a request from the government of South Africa.

The purpose of the program is to:

-protect lives and promote access to essential equipment to prevent infection, such as protective personal equipment, sanitizers and gloves

-protect livelihoods by preserving jobs, incomes, food security and access to essential public services – protect firms by supporting enterprises in the formal and informal economy to withstand the impacts of COVID-19 and prepare for economic recovery.

“South Africa’s ability to respond to the pandemic has implications for neighbouring countries as well as the continent as a whole, given its position as Africa’s second-largest economy after Nigeria.

“Even before the pandemic, South Africa was experiencing an economic slump. In 2019, the country registered GDP growth of 0.2% – the lowest in a decade – and according to bank estimates it could drop to the worst in 90 years in 2020. Projections show a GDP contraction of 6.3% and 7.5% under baseline and worst-case scenarios, respectively,” said the bank in a statement.

These growth forecasts have placed budgetary constraints on the government’s ability to deal with the health crisis.

In order to ensure a complementary intervention, the African Development Bank operation was designed in collaboration with other partners, including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the New Development Bank.

South Africa is ranked as the most prepared African country to deal with a pandemic, according to a Global Health Security (GHS) Index.

“Yet significant challenges remain in the public health sector, including underfunding and human resource shortages. While the private health sector is better equipped, it remains unaffordable to the majority of South Africans.”

The COVID-19 outbreak is also likely to adversely affect the gains made in controlling other infectious diseases such as TB and HIV and AIDS.

“South Africa’s scaling up of mass testing has also put pressure on capacity at public sector laboratories, and concerns have been raised about the rising numbers of infections among health workers,” said the bank.

Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, says the department has forged partnerships that will see it rolling out free sanitary products to vulnerable women and girls in poor communities.

The Minister said this when she outlined the Ministry’s budget priorities for the year ahead in a virtual mini-plenary of the National Assembly on Wednesday.

She said this amid concerns over the lack of access to menstrual health and hygiene products by indigent women and girls, products such as sanitary towels, water and soap, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“On our part, the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities has contributed to the COVID-19 response plan with a particular focus on mitigating the negative impact of the pandemic on women, youth and persons with disabilities.

“The Department has also partnered with the Department of Social Development, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and WaterAid to ensure Menstrual Hygiene Management is accessible to vulnerable women and girls.

While the United Nations Population Fund is an agency that promotes the rights of women and girls in areas of reproductive health and gender equality, WaterAid is an international NGO that works in the area of water, sanitation and hygiene.

“Furthermore, the Department has been participating actively in government structures to coordinate the response to COVID-19, including key workstreams and the [National Joint Operations]. This is to ensure that interventions are deliberately targeted at these sectors and that these sectors benefit from social and economic relief packages.

“Working with development partners, we will ensure that women in poor communities have access to free sanitary dignity products,” she said.

Nkoana-Mashabane also said that government has adopted progressive interventions to alleviate the worst social impacts of COVID-19.

This includes the establishment of homeless shelters; expansion of provision of psycho-social support services; measures to ensure support for gender-based violence victims, including declaration of GBV-related services as essential services and strengthening the capacity of the GBV Command Centre.

Calls for communities to unite against gender-based violence

Nkoana-Mashabane said as efforts against gender-based violence are intensified, the fight against femicide is bigger than government.

“We need communities to join and help us eradicate this pandemic. We would like to call upon our communities to come together against this scourge and expose perpetrators and not turn a blind eye.

“As government, we will continue to improve our response to gender-based violence and femicide in the context of the District Development Model.

“We will ensure that perpetrators are brought to book whilst taking good care of the victims. We will engage all structures of society through on-going dialogues, education and healing sessions. We want to work with communities so that we can get to the root of this pandemic.”

Employment and Labour Deputy Minister Boitumelo Moloi has announced that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will provide R104 million to Productivity SA to support some 6 000 SMEs to improve productivity to preserve and create jobs.

Speaking at a media briefing held in Pretoria earlier on Wednesday, Deputy Minister Moloi said this is the time when jobs must be preserved.

“The launch of a massive program such as the Turnaround Solutions at a time like this one, where companies are shutting down, people are losing jobs, is an immediate response and true demonstration of a government at work.

“This program supports initiatives aimed at preventing job losses and implements turn-around strategies to support companies facing operational difficulties which may result in those companies contemplating the retrenchment of employees based on their operational requirements,” Moloi said.

Productivity SA is an entity of the Department of Employment and Labour and the Business Turnaround and Recovery Programme is aimed at preventing job losses and implements turnaround strategies to support companies facing operational difficulties which may result in the companies contemplating retrenchments.

Moloi said as part of fulfilling its mandate, Productivity SA has a duty to implement the Turnaround Solutions Programme which is funded by the UIF.

“I am reliably informed that the first tranche to the value of R23 million has already been disbursed to the Entity in response to this mandate. We are indeed proud to be part of unlocking a programme with a proven record, that has provided solutions for government over two decades,” Moloi said.

Moloi said interventions will include a review of company’s performance (both financially and operationally) and assist in turning the company’s performance towards an upward trajectory.

Productivity SA, which is established in terms of the Employment Services Act, No. 4 of 2014 as an entity of the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) has reinstated the Business Turnaround and Recovery Programme (formerly known as the Turnaround Solutions Programme) with effect from the 15 June 2020.

The programme was suspended in 2018 due to the lack of funds.

The allocation of funds for implementing the turnaround strategies will go a long way to enabling Productivity SA to fulfill its mandate as outlined in section 32 of the Act, and objectives of the Presidential Jobs Summit Framework Agreement to save jobs and create conditions conducive for job retention and creation.

The Business Turnaround and Recovery Programme supports initiatives aimed at preventing job losses and implements turnaround strategies to support companies facing operational difficulties which may result in them contemplating the retrenchment of employees based on their operational requirements.

Productivity SA has run the programme for almost two decades and in the process facilitated the prevention of loss of thousands of jobs.

Productivity SA will also assist struggling companies that have applied for the Temporary Employers/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) as well as those companies that have applied for Section s189 of the Labour Relations Act and are contemplating retrenchment of its employees.

By the end of April 2021, a report on the impact of the programme will be availed detailing the number of jobs saved by the Turnaround Solutions Programme.

Tourism Minister Mmamokolo Kubayi-Ngubane says the department is finalizing the country’s tourism recovery plan with a view of submitting it to Cabinet next month.

She said this when she outlined the department’s priorities for the year ahead during a National Assembly virtual mini-plenary on Wednesday.

She said this as the tourism sector finds itself in a severe state due to the after-effects of lockdown.

“Working together with various stakeholders we have put together the tourism Recovery plan and we are in the final stages of consultation and we will within the month of August submit the plan for Cabinet for Approval.

“So far, the indications are that Tourism recovery will experience a number of phases, from hyper-local community attractions, through to broader domestic tourism, regional land and air markets, and resumption of world-wide international travel,” she said.

Kubayi-Ngubane said with regards to interventions, the department envisages that phase one of interventions will primarily focus on the protection of the domestic supply side of the sector. In phase two, the emphasis will be on managing the re-opening of the sector as tourism activities scale up.

Phase 3 will target factors that can drive long term growth in tourism supply and demand.

“One intervention that will drive demand in the recovery period is the MICE (Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) sector.

“We will aggressively bid to host large international events in anticipation of the opening of the borders so that upon opening, we can immediately drive up demand for our supply market and also build confidence that South Africa is safe and open for business,” she said.

The Minister said the department would work with its sister departments and tourism stakeholders in implementing a set of interventions so that they can induce a quick recovery.

This will include readiness for the rollout of the e-visa system, resolving the challenges around the issuance of licenses for tour operators, and ensuring that all the marketing campaigns, globally and domestically and associated partnerships are in place and ready to be rolled out.

“We have also been engaging with global bodies so that we coordinate with our partners around the world, especially our source markets, in preparation for the sector recovery.”

9 000 tour guides apply for COVID-19 relief

Addressing the virtual plenary, she said 9 000 freelance tourist guides have applied for financial relief as the COVID-19 pandemic takes its toll on the sector.

This comes after she announced the establishment of a R30 million Tourist Guides Relief Fund just over a month ago aimed at helping freelance tour guides with financial relief for two to three months.

“The beneficiaries of this scheme must be registered in terms of the Tourism Act.

“So far we have received a list of 9 380 tourist guides from the provinces and we are finalising the verification process to start paying the eligible beneficiaries,” she said.

Programme to steer enterprises to clean energy, water resources

Kubayi-Ngubane said, meanwhile, that the department introduced the Green Tourism Incentive Programme (GTIP), administered by the IDC, to encourage private tourism enterprises to move towards more efficient utilisation of energy and water resources.

“The department is reviewing the implementation modalities of the GTIP to ensure that the much needed relief for businesses to retrofit is speedily disbursed, so that they can reduce operational costs.

“We have set aside R40 million for this programme. This will go a long way in providing the much need relief in this COVID-19 environment and beyond.

“With regards to grading, South African Tourism has resolved to support the sector with provision of an exemption for up to 12 months of the grading assessments and fees followed by a payment holiday of 100% grading discount, when the sector resumes operation to aid the recovery of the sector,” she said.

Tourism Relief Funds provides relief to 4 000 businesses

The Minister said when the Tourism Relief Fund was introduced, its implementation came under much scrutiny and led to a court challenge due to the use of the government adopted policy of BBBEE.

“For our part, we redirected R200 million which assisted 4 000 businesses through the Tourism Relief Fund.

“We ensured that the benefit is spread geographically across the country to cover even businesses in small dorpies and townships as per the discussions in the portfolio committee,” she said.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has donated over 3 000 masks to disadvantaged schools, orphanages and old age homes in Hammanskraal, Tshwane.

The CSIR donated the masks on 21 and 22 July 2020, as part of the annual Nelson Mandela International Day celebration on 18 July.

The CSIR’s contribution follows government’s call to assist and protect vulnerable communities during this pandemic and is in line with the organisation’s mandate to improve the lives of South Africans.

The masks will be used to curb the spread of Coronavirus and support learners, frontline staff and essential workers in the schools, orphanages and old age homes, ensuring that education in disadvantaged communities continues and that the vulnerable are protected.

“During this pandemic, pupils and the elderly are most vulnerable. The CSIR wants to ensure that learners, especially in disadvantaged schools, are still able to attend school in a safe and enabling environment during this difficult time.

“The learners are potential science, engineering and technology based candidates, while the elderly are identified as vulnerable, as they are more at risk of contracting COVID-19, and have less chances of recovery. Therefore, they must be protected all the time,” said CSIR Acting Group Executive: Human Capital, Andile Mabindisa.

Among the institutions that will benefit from the donations are Masakhane Primary School, Sikhululekile High School, Phuthanang Primary School, Walmansdal High School, Ikatisong High School, Kutullo Disability and Day Care Centre, Tswaranang Orphanage, Luvuyo Orphanage Home, Grace of Help and; old age homes – Lerato la Bagolo Old Age Home and Ikwezi le Themba.

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, says the department has set aside R554 million to create jobs through municipal infrastructure projects.

Dlamini-Zuma said this when she outlined the department’s budget and spending priorities during a virtual mini-plenary of the National Assembly on Wednesday.

“…R554million has been allocated to the Department of Cooperative Governance as part of the government-wide R19.6 billion of the Presidential Economic Stimulus and job creation programme.

“We will use these resources to create 25 000 jobs through building and maintaining infrastructure using labour intensive methods.”

Addressing members of Parliament, Dlamini-Zuma said for communities and ordinary citizens to be able to participate in the opportunities and in their own development, government must urgently implement the skills revolution.

She said there was a need for targeted skills development in agriculture, construction, infrastructure, artisans and many other skills in order to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty, whilst building the resilience of communities.

“To complement this, we are also remodeling the Community Works Programme. We intend to use the programme to promote active citizenry through the employ of cooperatives and community based organisations.”

COVID-19 an opportunity to reset the country’s outlook

Dlamini-Zuma said in response to the global Coronavirus pandemic, government has relied on the District Development Model, which has been rolled out with urgency since it is a central feature in the response to COVID-19.

The recently-launched district-based coordination model, dubbed ‘Khawuleza’ (hurry up), was introduced with an aim of addressing service delivery and economic development challenges through the synchronisation of planning across all spheres of government.

“We need not fear the pandemic, because it also offers us an opportunity to reset our outlook. Through our responses, we can [see the] possibility of a more equal, sustainable and just society, where leaders are active facilitators in development.”

The Minister said that to this end, the President has deployed Ministers and Deputy Ministers as district champions.

“We have profiled all 52 District and Metro spaces, so that we can facilitate for the participation of our people in a decentralised economic system, as envisaged by the Reconstruction and Development Programme.

“The champions will contribute to vertical and horizontal integration of government planning and implementation.”

Dlamini-Zuma also said that the deployment of champions will be complemented by a shared services model at a district level, which will avail Local Economic Development, planning, engineering, planners, ICT, financial and other capacities and capabilities to our municipalities.

“Through the transparent One Plan and One Budget, every citizen will know of the status of plans, budgets and implementation, thus lessening the potential of corruption and maladministration.”