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Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi will on Friday launch a report on the state of the South African Occupational Health and Safety (OHS).

The report will be launched during a webinar under the theme, ‘A new beginning’.

The launch of the report is a project commissioned jointly by the International Labour Organization and the Department of Employment and Labour, and focuses on the profile of Occupational Health and Safety in workplaces.

The report provides a historical analysis of OHS in South Africa.

It contains a number of key themes and insights that came out of the confidential, semi-structured in-depth interviews with 34 purposefully selected participants.

Themes identified in the interview responses include COVID-19 opportunities; enforcement of legislation; poor compliance and OHS committees; gender and the informal sector; complex legislation; poor reporting yet increasing claims and lack of awareness; partnerships and human resources challenges for inspection, and better enforcement in the mines.

Speakers from organised business and labour will also be part of the webinar.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni says the National Treasury now predicts that the South African economy will return to pre-COVID levels only in 2023.

He revealed this during a media briefing on Wednesday on government’s Economic Support Package in response to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions and the recent violent unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal that saw businesses gutted and looted.

The two events, he said, had “very serious” negative consequences for the South African economy.

“The National Treasury now projects that we will only be able to go back to the pre COVID growth situation only in about 2023.

“This then calls on all of us to put our shoulders to the wheel. The recent disturbances and unrest in both Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng, but also in other parts of the country on a smaller scale, have had a major impact on our economy. This has impacted very negatively to our economic recovery trajectory.”

“As emphasised by the president, no matter how upset we might be about one or the other, the destruction of infrastructure that belongs to all of us is really unacceptable,” he said.

National Treasury currently estimates that the costs of damage to property and infrastructure in eThekwini was around R15 billion.

“Now this is a R15 billion that would normally not have to be repaired, but should have been used for better economic performance. But this destruction in eThekwini is very significant,” he said.

During the chaos that claimed over 330 lives three weeks ago, shops, malls, network towers, post offices, factories, roads, and freight trains among others, were destroyed.

“All of this destruction does not add to positive value for our society,” said the Minister.

Source: South African Government News Agency

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.

Source: South African Government News Agency

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.

Source: South African Government News Agency