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Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi says the Department of Employment and Labour is committed to assist workers who have been affected by the recent events in parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

Nxesi said businesses or companies in distress following the unrest may also apply for the normal Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS).

Addressing the media on Wednesday, Nxesi said the recent events in the two provinces may lead to a temporary lay-off from work or an outright retrenchment.

“The Unemployment Insurance Fund has a basket of benefits that can serve as intervention mechanisms to support the affected workers and companies,” Nxesi said.

“According to our own assessment, about 75 000 employees have been affected by the destruction in the two provinces,” Nxesi said.

He said it should be mentioned upfront that there is currently no benefit quite suited to the current situation.

“The COVID-19 TERS benefit was established as an intervention for a specific state of disaster situation. Therefore, the current benefits under the Unemployment Insurance Act are the only interventions available to cover the affected workers,” Nxesi said.

Nxesi said in order to ensure that the basic tenets of the Act are not violated, his department is drafting a special directive dealing with the plight of the affected workers in the two provinces.

“The spirit of the directive will be to ensure that workers, who would not normally qualify for these benefits due to non-compliance of the employer with the Act that they are able to access these benefits.

“However, I should emphasise that it will not be a free for all, the criteria to determine who qualifies is going to be stringent and payments will be based on the resources available.

“Whilst it is our desire to pay all affected workers, it should be borne in mind that the Fund’s resources are limited,” Nxesi said.

Nxesi said he had instructed his department’s officials to gather data of businesses that have been affected and also to perform an analysis of those who will afford to carry their employees’ salaries during this period.

“On the basis of this analysis we shall be able to indicate the benefit calculation that we will follow, whether it is a flat rate across the board, an Income Replacement Rate, or a combination of the two depending on the circumstances and nature of the particular application.

“All details pertaining to who qualifies, the payment structure, the application process and the duration of the payment period will be outlined in the direction to be issued shortly. We are mindful of the urgency of the matter.

“We therefore commit to expediting the process of drafting and approval of the directive. The UIF already has a system in place that will help fast-track the payments,” Nxesi said.

Nxesi explained that applications for TERS are made via the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), and an independent adjudication committee evaluates all proposals and makes a recommendation to the Director-General of the Department of Employment and Labour.

“It is a reality that some of the businesses will not fully recover from the damage they have suffered, which will result in retrenchments.

“The UIF will ensure that it prioritises those retrenched employees in some of the Labour Activation Programmes that are designed to place retrenched workers in employment opportunities,” Nxesi said.

North West Premier, Professor Tebogo Job Mokgoro, has welcomed the arrest of five suspects for the murder of two police officers who were stationed at Mareetsane police station.

As reported by the SAPS, the five were arrested yesterday in Logageng village near Tshidilamolomo, Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality by a multi-disciplinary team consisting of the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation, Detective service, Tactical Response Team and members of the Local Criminal Records.

Premier Mokgoro, who was shocked by the brutal killing of the two officers, applauded the multi-disciplinary team’s swift response to this case and said the arrest of these suspects should send a strong message to perpetrators of criminal acts who do not have regard for the law.

“As we strongly condemn this despicable incident, we call on the members of the public to always work closely with law enforcement officers in the fight against crime and appreciate the work they do in keeping our areas free of criminal acts,” Mokgoro said.

Premier Mokgoro, who expressed confidence in the work of the law enforcement agencies and the country’s justice system, also conveyed the provincial government’s message of condolences to the families and colleagues of the late Constable Ngakaemang Ntsekeletsa (50) and Sergeant Mojalefa Horatious Molete (42).

It is alleged that on 26 July 2021 around 9pm, the two police officers were on patrol duties with a state vehicle when they came across a vehicle loaded with suspected stolen goats.

The members reported the incident to the commander and mentioned that they would be bringing the suspect’s vehicle to the police station.

About an hour later, the police reported that they were not far from the police station.

However, the police officers never arrived at the police station and they could not be reached on both their cell phones nor the police radio. A manhunt for the police officers was immediately launched.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is today visiting two Gauteng vaccination sites to assess progress in South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout programme.

In a statement, the Presidency said the President’s visit will serve to motivate greater numbers of South Africans to embrace vaccination as the most effective weapon in the fight against COVID-19.

COVID-19 vaccines are a safe and effective defence against serious illness, hospitalisation and death.

“The President will visit a public health facility in Tembisa and a private-public partnership centre in Midrand in recognition of the close collaboration between government, the private sector and active support of social partners. This partnership has enabled South Africa’s vaccination programme to gather pace,” said the Presidency on Thursday.

Under this programme, the number of vaccinated people now exceeds seven million with around a million people being vaccinated every week.

“More than 1 500 volunteers comprising doctors, nurses and health workers have been brought on board to help with vaccination on weekends on various sites across all nine provinces. Doing away with sectoral prioritisation and moving to the age-based approach has proven more effective in reaching a wider spectrum of South Africans,” the Presidency said.

Government has set aside R36 billion financial assistance and incentive relief to businesses hardest hit by the recent riots in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal with the aim of helping them get back on their feet.

Revealing the economic support package on Wednesday, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said the government had to intervene.

He said South Africa was fortunate enough to have the South African Special Risks Insurance Association (Sasria). To this end, Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane said Sasria would be allocated about R3.9 billion “immediately” to ensure that in need businesses were supported.

Further to this, employment tax incentives of about R5 billion were releasing back to businesses in the form of their employment initiatives.

“All-in-all, there’s about R36 billion in support that we are putting on the table. But we will be interacting within the parliamentary system,” he said.

Mboweni said Sasria would immediately commence paying out insurance claims “in order to assist those business to come back to life”.

“Sasria is a very special mechanism which was developed, unfortunately – but now we’re benefiting from it – during the apartheid periods to cover for riots, destruction of property and so on.”

Together with other insurance companies, the Minister said Sasria was speeding up the assessment process, the damage assessment process so that they can be able to assist companies to come back to life.

“We anticipate that this will cause maybe R15 to R30 billion which between Sasria and National Treasury will have to make sure that these are met,” he said.

“Of course, at the launch of our democracy, we did not really anticipate that we will have riots and destruction of property and so on because we’re a democracy and therefore we were supposed to resolve our differences peacefully, in discussions and debate.

“But unfortunately we have found ourselves in this position today and therefore, Sasria is going to become very handy in assisting us to come out of this difficult situation,” said the Minister.

Estimated costs of damage to property and infrastructure in eThekwini was around R15 billion. Combined with damages sustained in Gauteng, the figure is said to reach R20 billion. This excludes that over 150 000 jobs and 330 lives were lost during this period.

The temporary extension of the R350 Social Relief of Distress grant by another month will cost the South African fiscus R27 billion, the National Treasury has revealed.

The Department revealed this during a press briefing in which it detailed the country’s Economic Support Package as a result of COVID restrictions and the recent riots in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The package was first announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday.

The SRD, which was first introduced in April last year, will now end in March 2022.

“And really this responds to the dire situation in which most of our people have found themselves, said Finance Minister Tito Mboweni. “If you drive around the country or walk around the country, you are bound to notice the extreme poverty in which our people live.”

The R350, no matter how small it might be, he said, “goes a long way to assisting our people”.

“This will cost about R27 billion which we have to find in the system. Looking after our own is not just a cost, but it is an investment that we should see going forward.”

Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane said: “Immediately, we will set certain processes in place for the Department of Social Development to access the R26.7 billion as part of this package that will make sure that we support vulnerable households, those who qualify.”

In addition, R950 million had been allocated to the South African Police Service and South African National Defence in their efforts to restore peace and stability in the wake of the chaotic scenes of violence the country saw recently. Of this, R250 million would go to the SAPS while the remainder would bolster SANDF coffers.

Mboweni said the money would assist the two law enforcement agencies to be able to execute the tasks delegated by the President.

“But may I hasten to add, it is not about the police, it is not about the defence force, it is about us in our communities to ensure that peace and stability returns to our communities.

“It is us who know the looters. It is us who know who destroyed the ATM, who destroyed the branches of banks, which makes it difficult for cash to flow, in KZN in particular.

“It is us in the community who must take responsibility for the safety and security of our assets,” he said.

He said the Department had reprioritised a certain budget, in particular within the departments of Small Business Development in the Trade, Industry and Competition.

The total package of support going to that intervention in supporting businesses totals an amount of R2.3 billion that is there. He said there was an extra R1.3 billion that will go towards this.

About R5.3 billion in intervention was being availed to the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

Five suspects were arrested during the early hours of Wednesday in Logageng village in the North West province for the murder of two police officers, Constable Simon Ngakaemang Ntsekeletsa (50) and Sergeant Mojalefa Horatius Molete (42).

The arrest was made by a multi-disciplinary team consisting of the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation, Detective service, Tactical Response Team and members of the Local Criminal Records.

It is alleged that on 26 July 2021 around 9pm, the two police officers were on patrol duties with a state vehicle when they came across a vehicle loaded with suspected stolen goats.

The members reported the incident to the commander and mentioned that they would be bringing the suspect’s vehicle to the police station soon.

About an hour later, the police reported that they were not far from the police station.

However, the police officers never arrived at the police station and they could not be reached on both their cell phones nor the police radio. A manhunt for the police officers was immediately launched.

On 27 July 2021, the police were alerted by community members of blood stains on the road leading to the police station.

When the police visited the scene, a knife and a police badge belonging to one of the deceased was found and a second badge was found near Mareetsane road.

Further investigations led the team to a burnt state vehicle wherein the bodies of the deceased police officers were discovered.

The team followed all leads and worked tirelessly until they traced and arrested the five suspects who were allegedly found in possession of a 9mm pistol which was taken from the slain police officers.

A hammer, clothing with suspected blood stains and a vehicle have been seized for further investigation.

While condemning the acts of the perpetrators, the National Head of the Hawks Lieutenant, General Godfrey Lebeya, applauded the joint team for the swift arrest and recovery of the police firearm.

Lieutenant, General Lebeya, further expressed their deepest condolences to the families.

“We certainly hope that the families of our fallen police officers would find comfort in the arrest of suspects and look forward to successful prosecution on these criminal acts.

“An attack on the police is an attack on the state and this is why we will leave no stone unturned and will utilise all resources at our disposal to ensure those who commit such heinous acts against our officers in blue are found and face the full might of the law,” Police Minister Bheki Cele said.

The suspects will make their first court appearance on Friday at the Ganyesa Magistrate’s Court on charges of murder, malicious damage to property and possession of a stolen firearm.

South Africa has so far administered 6 854 667 vaccine doses of which 225 808 were distributed on Tuesday.

The latest data show that 60 001 people received the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) jab in the last 24 hours, while 165 807 received the Pfizer vaccine.

According to the Department of Health, the total cumulative number of the administered J&J shots now stands at 1 306 261 and 5 548 406 for Pfizer.

Meanwhile, South Africa recorded 36 721 COVID-19 tests of which 7 773 were positive.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 391 223.

Gauteng remains the hardest-hit province with 2 324 new infections detected in the last 24 hours, followed by 1 580 in the Western Cape and 1 246 in KwaZulu-Natal.

Meanwhile, the country lost 370 people to COVID-19, meaning the country’s death toll has risen to 70 388 deaths to date.

In addition, hospital admissions increased by 650 in the past 24 hours, while 140 341 people are currently infected in South Africa.

The information is based on the 14 623 917 tests that have been conducted in both the public and private sectors.

Global view

Globally, as of 27 July, there have been 194 608 040 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4 170 155 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

According to the WHO’s weekly epidemiological update, the global number of new cases reported last week was over 3.8 million, an 8% increase compared to the previous week.

“This trend is largely attributed to substantial increases in the Americas and Western Pacific regions,” the organisation explained.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths reported this week increased sharply with over 69 000 deaths, a 21% peak compared to the previous week.

The greatest number of new fatalities were reported from the Americas and South-East Asia regions, the WHO added.

According to the latest data, the cumulative number of cases reported globally is now nearly 194 million, while the deaths exceed four million.

“If these trends continue, the cumulative number of cases reported globally could exceed 200 million in the next two weeks.”

Over the past week, the WHO said the highest numbers of new cases were reported from the United States (500 332 new cases, 131% increase), Brazil (324 334 new cases, 13% increase), Indonesia (289 029 new cases, 17% decrease), the United Kingdom (282 920 new cases, 5% decrease), and India (265 836 new cases, similar to the previous week).

Meanwhile, globally, cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 182 countries, while 131 countries have cases of the Beta variant, 81 have the Gamma variant and 132 have detected the Delta variant.

Eskom has committed to replacing its ailing infrastructure in Gauteng after experiencing an increased number of “pole-mounted” transformers and mini-substations that fail due to network overload.

According to the State-owned entity, this is caused by meter bypassing, illegal connections, unauthorised operations, and vandalism of the electricity infrastructure.

To date, Eskom has successfully replaced and repaired 50% of the damaged electrical equipment in areas where communities have complied with the audit process across Gauteng.

While Eskom has a stable amount of critical material in stock, there is a risk of being unable to meet the “exponentially” high demand. This as lockdown has affected the production of electrical equipment, which has strained the industry.

“These are subsequent to the audit process, which includes assessing the severity of the damage on the network, removing illegal connections, disconnecting, and issuing fines to customers with contraventions that have to be paid in full before the equipment is replaced.”

Gauteng’s Senior Maintenance and Operations Manager, Mashangu Xivambu, said they are working around the clock to replace and repair failed equipment with the resources available.

“However, we often are faced with community resistance and other challenges which delay our efforts such as violently assaulting and injuring our employees, chasing them out of the areas, illegally removing and operating on our infrastructure, and non-adherence to the audit process as is the case in Chiawelo,” he said on Wednesday.

For instance, Eskom has replaced six of the seven problematic equipment in other parts of Chiawelo with one area remaining due to the lack of community cooperation until recently.

“The mini-substations will be replaced in the area subject to the availability of resources and material. We encourage communities to fully cooperate with us by allowing our employees to conduct their operations without interference,” said Xivambu.

Mpumalanga South African Police Service (SAPS) Commissioner, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Manamela, has warned the public to be cautious and not fall prey to scams.

The warning by the Provincial Commissioner comes after a recent incident in Lydenburg where a woman was scammed of R205 000.

Provincial SAPS spokesperson, Brigadier Leonard Hlathi, said: “According to information reported, on 5 May 2021, a man approached the victim and introduced himself as Paul Bargye from Tanzania, which police believe is a false name. He alleged that he was running an investment company and wanted to sell shares to her”.

He said the victim fell for the trap and gave the suspect the said amount hoping that the proposal was real.

“After she had paid the money to the suspect, he then told her to go prepare herself so they can go sign for the shares. Few moments after, she called the suspect and he allegedly told her the police had arrested him. He further stated that they also took all the money.

“The victim drove to the police station to check if indeed he was arrested and was told that he had lied about his arrest. She then tried to call him but his phone was off.”

A case of fraud was opened and is currently under investigation. No one has been arrested and police are requesting the public to assist with information that may lead to the arrest of the suspect to contact the investigating officer, Detective Sergeant Ruth Sithole at 073 020 9102, Lydenburg SAPS (013) 235 2222, or call the Crime Stop number at 08600 10111.

General Manamela appealed to the public not to trust people they don’t know with their money.

“If they want to invest, rather go to well established or reputable institutions for assistance. She further urged victims to report such matters at their nearest police station,” he said.

Contingency measures have been put in place after the Musina Magistrate’s Court was issued with a Prohibition Notice by the Department of Employment and Labour.

The notice is in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

“Until all issues raised by the Department of [Employment and] Labour have been attended to and the building receives clearance, the Cash Hall Building that houses Court A (District Court) and Court B (Regional Court) is deemed to be out of bounds effective immediately,” said the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.

The notice to the Limpopo based court was issued on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has been assured by all the relevant stakeholders that the matter is an urgent priority.

“Once we have obtained further information, the department will share any further details on developments in due course,” it said in a statement on Tuesday adding that the matter is being treated as a priority.

The following contingency measures have been put in place to mitigate any resultant impact on service delivery:

• Cases will be postponed outside the court building on a daily basis,
• Witnesses fees/cash hall, domestic violence applications and already enrolled maintenance matters will be attended to from the available mobile structure. Measures have been put in place to avoid staff congestion and to comply with all COVID-19 protocols under Alert Level 3.
• Arrangements have been made by consent of all stakeholders to have the high profile South African National Defence Force case bail application case moved to Louis Trichardt court on Thursday.
• Service delivery at Masisi Periodical court is not affected, court is still sitting on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as per their schedule

For service-related enquiries, the public can contact the area court manager Munyai TJ on 084 498 8686/ 079 162 8240.