Category: COVID-19 Corona Virus

Half of the workers who benefited from R16.5 billion that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) disbursed as part of the COVID-19 lockdown relief are from Gauteng.

According to the Department of Employment and Labour spokesperson Teboho Thejane, Gauteng constitutes 1 516 441 beneficiaries of the 3 464 124 million workers who have already received the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS).

“In monetary terms, this amounts to R7.9 billion and the workers who have been given the cash injection had their claims lodged by 111 385 employers,” he explained.

The second-highest recipient is the Western Cape with R2.7 billion paid to 549 156 workers represented by 54 077 employers; followed by KwaZulu-Natal with over R2.4 billion paid to 523 578 workers claimed by 42 136 employers and the Eastern Cape’s disbursement is under billion with R912 893 113 distributed to 186 789 workers represented by 18 495 employers.

Mpumalanga’s 185 329 workers represented by 15 443 employers received R886 million in cash; Free State with 115 701 workers represented by 14 388 employers claimed R557 million; Limpopo with 93 275 workers represented by 9 826 employers received R435 million and the North West received R459 million distributed to 88 215 workers who had their applications submitted by 9 184 employers.

Meanwhile, the Northern Cape had the least number of claimants with R163 million paid to the province for 32 141 workers represented by 4 176 employers.

“These disbursements represent the April and part of May payments of R452 million which has been processed and paid since 1 June 2020,” the spokesperson said.

According to the UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping, the UIF is holding back R2.8 billion which could benefit 686 463 workers due to 107 202 employers not furnishing the UIF with the right details and the status of the workers.

“Ordinarily, feedback for payment or non-payment with reasons thereof together with acceptance or approval is sent to employers via automated process within 24 hours through the email address provided in addition to the online portal.”

The department said UIF continues to pay ordinary benefits which have increased by 1.64% from R2 475 231 742.20 to R2 516 525 813.48 and the number of claims rising by 2.76% from 358 048 to 368 243.

For further information, log on to our website www.uifecc.labour.gov.za/covid19 or reach the UIF on the toll-free number 0800 030 007.

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) says it has kept its promise to pay at least 100 000 clients who had applied for the Special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant.

According to SASSA, by 31 May 2020, 116 867 clients were paid for the Special COVID-19 SRD Grant.

To date, over 35 million applicants were checked to confirm if they are either active SASSA grant recipients; are on the UIF database or receive an NSFAS stipend.

“We have received approximately 13 million enquiries/applications about the temporary special COVID-19 SRD grant as at Monday, 25 May 2020. About 6.3 million of these were valid complete applications.

“The rest were either duplicate applications, incomplete, had inconsistent data or were just pure enquiries,” said SASSA CEO Busisiwe Memela.

Furthermore, the following progress has been realised:

• About 1 236 492 clients are being finalised through verification by SARS to confirm if they have an income.
• A total of 666 381 clients have been approved and SASSA is awaiting banking details information.
• Over 1 597 127 have been disapproved since the applicants have some or other means of income.

Applicants are reminded to respond immediately to the SMS received from SASSA and provide their banking details through the secure link.

This will enable SASSA to ensure payments are processed without delay to all eligible applicants. Citizens are reminded that there is no cut-off date for applications for this special relief grant. Anyone who meets the qualifying criteria, should lodge an application without delay.

Beneficiaries can also check the status of their applications online on https://srd.sassa.gov.za/sc19/status or by adding GovChat whatsapp on 082 046 8553, open chat, type “Status” and Send.

SASSA has also successfully implemented the increase of the child support grant by R300 per child in May 2020 and an additional R500 per caregiver from June to October 2020.

All other existing grants were increased by R250 per month from May to October 2020 (except for Grant in Aid).

The South African Government has taken note of the Johannesburg High Court ruling, which declared COVID-19 lockdown regulations in levels 3 and 4 unconstitutional and invalid.

The court, however, suspended the declaration of invalidity for a period of 14 days.

“This means that the Alert Level 3 regulations remain in operation for now,” government said in a statement.

The court has further directed the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, in consultation with the relevant Ministers, to review, amend and republish the regulations with “due consideration to the limitation each regulation has on the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights”.

“Cabinet will make a further statement once it has fully studied the judgment,” the statement said.

The two levels are part of five that government introduced in an effort to gradually reopen the economy after the pandemic saw various sectors closed as a measure to curb the spread of the virus.

The Department of Trade and Industry and Competition (dtic)  has welcomed a court decision not to grant Sakeliga the relief it sought in a matter involving the lawfulness of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission’s issuance of certificates for companies to render service in the first phase of the COVID-19 lockdown.

“The dtic has welcomed a decision by the Gauteng High Court, which declined to give Sakeliga the relief it sought on the lawfulness of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) certificates issued to companies which were permitted to render essential services during the first phase of the lockdown,” said the department on Wednesday.

The independent, not-for-profit community organisation for business persons in general, approached the court seeking an order declaring that the CIPC had no authority to issue the essential services certificate to companies and close corporations permitted to operate during the lockdown.

The CIPC is an agency of the dtic.

In the judgement, the court remarked that giving such relief would be “inappropriate”.

During the first phase of lockdown, the CIPC established an online registration platform for companies, which were permitted to operate as essential service businesses in terms of the regulations published by the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

The service was established as a voluntary service for companies who wished to log their details with government over the period.

The platform, managed through the Bizportal (https://bizportal.gov.za/), became popular with companies during the lockdown, with nearly 500 000 company registrations over the period.

“Given that it was a voluntary, self-certification service to build a data-base of companies, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition decided not to issue a direction that would have required companies to register.”

“The lawyers for government pointed out prior to the matter being heard that the service was voluntary but Sakeliga persisted with its application. During the hearing, which took place on the day that the alert level 3 regulations were published, government’s legal representatives pointed out that the issuance of certificates would not continue under alert level 3, as the concept of essential services would no longer apply,” said the department.

The court therefore declined to make an order in favour of Sakeliga, ruling that it would be inappropriate to make any finding in respect of the declaratory relief directed at the CIPC issue.

Having already paid out R16.5-billion in Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (TERS), the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has vowed to ensure that outstanding payments are promptly processed.

In a statement on Monday, the Department of Employment and Labour, of which the UIF is an agency of, reiterated that the Fund is making good progress on its promise to capture and process May COVID-19 relief benefit applications.

“Payments this time around should be a lot quicker as the UIF already has the details for most of the claimants,” said the department.

On Monday, a total R1 billion had already been processed for payment for 252 378 workers represented by 26 648 employers.

At the same time, the Fund has also processed and paid R 331 530 550.90 for 79 507 workers represented by 13 503 employers which is part of the outstanding payments for April.

“As we indicated when we addressed the country last Friday, we are committed to ensuring that to the extent possible, the department through the UIF plays its role in shielding workers from the worst effects of the pandemic,” said Minister Thulas Nxesi.

The Minister added that cash payments are being provided to workers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are doing this by providing cash payments to workers who may have found themselves in the lurch as a result of lockdown. The payments have been significant in saving at least 3-million workers from poverty,” said the Minister.

A new enhanced system, which kicked into gear last week, will make it easy to resubmit claims as in cases where the information has not changed; the claim will be processed immediately on confirmation by the employer.

“But if information has changed, employers will still be required to capture employee’ details directly on the system or attach the CSV file.”

The following documents must be attached for the May submission:

• Proof of TERS payment to employees for April such as electronic bank statement, a letter of acknowledgement of payment between employer and employee (Mandatory),
• Re – upload employer bank confirmation letter or latest bank statement,
• Signed approval or acceptance letter from the UIF for April payments between employer and employee, and
• Proof of refund to the UIF attached if applicable.

“I have been assured that we would realise significant improvements in terms of payment turnaround time from claim submission. Already, with all the information supplied, the UIF was able to pay some claims in 24 hours at best or 48 at worst which is far more from when we started around April 16, “ said Minister Nxesi.

About 3.2 million workers represented by 279 111 employers have benefitted from the UIF’s R16.5 billion.

“Of this amount, R442 million has been paid through direct deposits to 99 269 workers’ bank accounts. The claims were submitted by 6 374 employers,” the Department said.

For further information, the public can log on to the department’s www.uifecc.labour.gov.za/covid19  website or reach the UIF on the toll-free number 0800 030 007.

A Pretoria company is in hot water after implementing excessive price hikes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In South Africa’s first contested excessive pricing case in the context of COVID-19, the Competition Tribunal has found Babelegi Workwear and Industrial Supplies CC (Babelegi) guilty of excessive pricing.

“In its order and reasons issued today, the Tribunal has found that Babelegi contravened section 8(1)(a) of the Competition Act by charging excessive prices for face masks that it sold to customers between 31 January 2020 and 5 March 2020 (the complaint period). The contravention relates to the sale of face Dust Mask FFP1 Pioneer (FFP1 masks),” said the Tribunal on Monday.

The Tribunal alleges that a local manufacturer of medical facemasks earned a mark-up in excess of 500% between 31 January 2020 and 5 March 2020, by increasing the price of a box of facemasks from R41 to R500.

It is also alleged that the manufacturer had increased its price by at least 888% during the period 9 December 2019 to 5 March 2020.

In considering the matter, the Tribunal noted the Pretoria based company’s successive and significant price increases for facemasks during the complaint period.

Babelegi effected several price increases before the actual increase in its supplier costs on 18 March 2020.

The Comission noted that the first significant price increase occurred on 31 January 2020, a day after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a public health emergency of international concern.

Babelegi’s price increases became progressively bolder in February 2020 and the company’s mark-ups on the masks sold increased significantly with each successive price increase during this period.

“On 10 February 2020, Babelegi again significantly increased its price; and on 5 March 2020 when South Africa announced its first Covid-19 case, then again significantly raised its price; and the company’s mark-ups on the masks sold increased significantly with each successive price increase during this period.”

The Tribunal has since ordered the company to pay a fine of R76 040 for charging excessive prices for facemasks that it sold to customers between 31 January 2020 and 5 March 2020, the complaint period.

The Tribunal said the company has not put up a rational and valid explanation for its successive and massive price increases.

Further, the Tribunal concluded that the Competition Commission established a prima facie case of an abuse of dominance because the Pretoria-based company charged excessive prices for FFP1 masks during the complaint period in breach of section 8(1)(a) of the Act.

The Tribunal also found that the company prices were of an exploitative nature.

“Babelegi knew full well that there was a significant increase in demand for masks … and took advantage of customers and consumers amid the international COVID-19 health crisis. This leads us to conclude that prices charged during the complaint period were to the detriment of consumers and customers”.

“It would be wholly against the public interest if Babelegi were to financially benefit from its excessive pricing conduct. This means that the administrative penalty should exceed the excess profit made by Babelegi,” said the Tribunal.

The Department of Social Development, in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, aims to improve the standard of Early Childhood Development (ECD) across the country, as part of this year’s Child Protection Week campaign.

This year’s campaign is being held under the theme: ‘Let Us All Protect Children, During Covid-19 and Beyond’.

The partnership between the department and the Nelson Mandela Foundation will culminate with the launch of Vangasali-Every Child Counts Campaign, which is targeting unregistered ECD centres, with the view of assisting them to meet the minimum norms and standards for registration, as stipulated in the Children’s Act (Act No. 38 of 2005).

A nationwide audit of ECD centres conducted by the department on the nature and extent of ECD provisioning, services, resources and infrastructure across all nine provinces revealed that a considerable number of centres were unregistered.

Vangasali, which means “leave no child or ECD centre behind” in Xitsonga, seeks to change all that by encouraging members of the public to participate in finding ECD centres in their local communities. Members of the public are encouraged to find ECD facilities in their local communities.

Once a centre has been identified, members of the public are advised to send the word “ECD” to 082 046 8553 on WhatsApp.

The name, details and the geolocation of the centre will be entered into the Govchat database for mapping purposes. This will also assist in determining the coverage of ECD services, particularly in poor and vulnerable communities.

The campaign will be rolled out nationwide in three phases, namely find and count (phase 1), categorise (phase 2) and intervention (phase 3).

The goal is to provide support packages to all identified ECD centres to progressively register and enhance the delivery of quality ECD services, including nutrition, health and safety of children.

The package of ECD registration benefits include amongst other things, access to basic social services such as access to government subsidy in the form of a R15 per child a day for 365 days a year.

The ECD subsidy is important for ensuring that children attending ECDs have access to health services and nutritious meals every day.

“We could not have found a better partner than the Nelson Mandela Foundation for an initiative of this kind, which seeks to improve educational opportunities for children.

“We all know that the founding father of our democracy spent his life campaigning for improvement and access to education for all children.

“We are keeping his legacy and passion for education and children alive,” said Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu.

The Vangasali campaign will be officially launched today as part of this year’s Child Protection Week.

Outdoor enthusiasts now have something to smile about as hunting, self-drive visits to private or public game reserves and national parks, as well as recreational fishing is now permitted under lockdown level 3.

The directions that guide marine and freshwater fisheries, forestry and biodiversity sectors, have since been gazetted in terms of the Disaster Management Regulations published on 29 April.

“Self-drive excursions in public and private game reserves are permitted,” said Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy.

The Department said SANParks, the body responsible for managing South Africa’s national parks, will publish a list of access-controlled parks that will be opened to visitors in the coming days.

The national parks’ visitors are advised to book and pay online before going on a game drive.

The Minister said the iSimangaliso Wetland Park would be getting the park ready for visitors.

“Besides staff returning to work, deep cleaning of the offices and public facilities have started. Additional work will be done by rangers and conservationists, including cutting back of trees and removing logs from roads.”

She said once compliance requirements are met and the park has been declared safe for visitors, the public will be given seven days’ notice of its reopening for self-drive excursions.

“While we understand that many nature lovers are keen to get back to our national parks and game reserves, it would be prudent to wait until the relevant authorities are comfortable with their state of preparedness to welcome visitors.

“All the usual protocols concerning social distancing, hand-sanitising and wearing of masks will apply at all times,” Creecy stressed.

Recreational fishing

Meanwhile, all fishing, including recreational fishing, is now allowed except for charter fishing and fishers must ensure that they have a valid permit.

“All regulations relating to social distancing, health protocols, movement and the prohibition of groups and gatherings apply,” Creecy added.

Wildlife auction, subsistence hunting, imports, and exports

Also, online wildlife auctions are now allowed and if not possible, live auctions can also take place only comprising not more than 50 people.

Subsistence hunting for food with the necessary permits is also now open.

The import and export of live or dead plant or animal specimens or products will also be allowed subject to directions issued by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition.

The directions also deal with the processing of applications for Environmental Authorisations required in terms of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), as well as the handling of applications for waste management licences, permits linked to the export of waste tyres, and applications for Atmospheric Emission Licences in terms of the Air Quality Act.

“Appeals lodged in terms of NEMA will be dealt with,” the department said.

Further leeway has been granted on the timeframes for permits that had already been extended at the end of March, the statement said.

“The extension is now granted until further notice. However, where pending permitting processes now resume, the relevant prescribed timeframes that applied on 27 March has been extended by an additional 21 days.”

She said authorisations for the export of waste tyres, which expired between 27 March and 29 April, remain valid subject to new applications being submitted within 60 days.

“The applications and appeals mentioned will be processed by the responsible authorities from the date of publication of the directions. Further details on how to access the service, and submit applications and appeals will be provided in the annexures to the alert level 3 directions.”

Waste management

Also, 100% of the recycling sector is allowed to operate.

“More details on the directions are contained in the Government Gazette that will be published this week and we recommend that members of the public await the publication of these directions.”

During alert level 3 of the nationwide lockdown, lovebirds can officially tie the knot at Home Affairs offices following the resumption of marriage services.

Under level 3, the department will also receive late registrations of birth. These services will be provided by appointment.

This is in addition to the services rendered in level 4, namely:

•        Issuance of uncollected Identity Documents;

•        Issuance of temporary identity certificates;

•        Registration of births and deaths;

•        Reissue of birth and death certificates and

•        Issuance of passports to those in export and cargo transport.

Home Affairs offices will continue opening Monday to Friday, from 08h30 to 15h30.

“For marriages, couples are required to book an appointment by calling their nearest Home Affairs office.

“On the day of the marriage, couples are requested to visit our offices with only their witnesses to keep the numbers of people at our offices at a bare minimum,” said the department.

An appointment is also required when applying for a late registration of birth (LRB), which refers to a birth registration application lodged after 30 days of such a birth.

“Children born during the lockdown will not follow the LRB process. This includes children who were born from 26 February 2020 but could not be registered because of the lockdown,” said the department.

Birth registration during lockdown

Between 27 March 2020 and 28 May 2020, a total of 133 251 births were registered.

Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal each registered more than 27 000 children during this period. Deaths registered were 68 768.

“A total of 55 761 temporary identity certificates were issued, showing a high demand for these certificates, as is the case also for re-issuance of birth certificates. In total, 51 844 birth certificates were replaced,” said the department.

To support economic activity and food security, 475 passports were issued to those in export and cargo transport.

Uncollected smart IDs

Only 66 665 uncollected smart ID cards were cleared. This, the department said, is a drop in the ocean considering that the number of uncollected smart ID cards exceeds 411 000.

“The department invites citizens whose smart ID cards are not yet collected to visit offices where they had applied, to collect their valuable smart IDs – your ID is your identity.

“All offices were disinfected. People visiting our offices are requested to wear masks and to observe social distancing protocols inside and outside the offices,” it said.

As part of coordinated security operations, the DHA said its inspectorate will ensure that any undocumented or illegal nationals who are detained will be subject to deportation.

“Refugee reception offices remain closed. However, permits issued lawfully, and expired during the lockdown, would be deemed to be valid until 31 July 2020,” it said.

During Level 3 lockdown, no visa or permitting functions will be open in South Africa and at missions abroad.

Following the postponed reopening of schools to 8 June 2020, schools around the country are set to use the first week of June to induct and orientate teachers on the COVID-19 school environment, and to ensure the readiness of each facility for the arrival of learners.

On Sunday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga took a decision to delay the reopening of schools by a week, following a series of consultations with stakeholders in the education sector.

The decision was taken following the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) meeting on Saturday to assess the state of readiness for the reopening of schools.

“I really wish to apologise wholeheartedly for the inconvenience that was caused yesterday, but it was beyond my control because I had to make sure that all key stakeholders are informed on time, so that they can mitigate all the challenges that have been brought by the decision that we took very late on Saturday,” said the Minister at a media briefing on Monday.

At the meeting, the CEM received a report from the consortium of service providers, coordinated by the National Education Collaboration Trust on the External Evaluation and Monitoring of the state of readiness. Rand Water, as an implementing agent delivering water to 3 500 schools, also presented its report.

The Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM) also presented its technical report.

All three reports indicated that a substantial number of schools would not be ready for the reopening on Monday, 1 June, as previously announced by the department.

“Based on these reports, it became clear that the sector was at different levels of readiness… [Schools may] only open if [they] meet the health requirements to the fullest.

“The reports confirmed that [schools] were not all on the same level and in the main, it was for this reason that the CEM determined that the sector requires more time to mop up its state of readiness for schools reopening,” said the Minister.

While personal protective equipment deliveries were available for the school management teachers, the CEM was concerned that in some provinces, PPEs for learners, in particular, had not been received.

Curriculum trimming and reorganisation

Motshekga said reorganising the school curriculum has proven challenging.

“We have lost a whole term and are likely to lose more days due to Coronavirus. We had to be innovative in the manner in which we get the school programme back on track.

“In order to recoup the teaching and learning time lost, the schooling system had to be re-engineered – resulting in the adjustment of the timetables and the review of the curriculum, in terms of the National Education Policy Act, which empowers me, as the Minister, to determine a national policy for the curriculum framework, core syllabuses and education programme.”

She said a curriculum work stream, consisting of curriculum experts from the department and from outside the department, is continuously managing this aspect of the re-engineering of the curriculum.

“The provinces are now putting their shoulder to the wheel to ensure that all prerequisites not yet fulfilled will be delivered within week one of June.

“Together with our partners, we have agreed to another meeting on Thursday to continue to monitor and evaluate all outstanding compliance imperatives.”

Rand Water addresses water supply

On water supply to schools, Rand Water Stakeholder Relations Manager, Teboho Joala, said there is a lack of adequate supply of water to schools across the country.

Joala said six of the nine provinces require water and sanitation infrastructure.

It became apparent the six out of nine provinces have not met the requirement of water supply on the school premises.

“The number of schools affected is 3 126. This is what our scope will cover.

“There are two types of schools we are dealing with. There are schools that have water tanks, but are a bit far from the water source. We have 2 634 schools, which do not have water tanks or reticulation, and a decent and continuous supply of water,” said Joala.

The provincial breakdown of schools without adequate water supply are 756 in the Eastern Cape, Free State 87, KwaZulu-Natal 1 125, Limpopo 475, North West 248 and Mpumalanga 435.

“We are now setting up temporary establishments because we are doing it in two folds. We won’t wait until we build the whole stand that is bricks and mortar based. We will have a temporary installation and then the second phase will be to build some plinths,” Joala said.