In the worst-case scenario, Gauteng Premier David Makhura says two million jobs will be lost.
In a virtual address to the Gauteng Legislature, Premier David Makhura said this week that the province could lose as many as two million jobs due to the impact of Covid-19. He said that the province, which would normally contribute more than a third of the country’s GDP, had been hit hard by South Africa’s national lockdown, which was among one of the strictest lockdowns anywhere in the world. Of the seven million projected job losses due to Covid-19 in South Africa, the premier said many of them would be in the province.
“In our modelling in Gauteng, there are two scenarios. In the best-case scenario, we will have about 890 000 job losses. We have revised the number from 600 000 people losing jobs. In the worst-case scenario, up to two million jobs will be lost in the Gauteng economy,” said the premier.
Gauteng’s lockdown with be relaxed to level 3 at the end May and this will see a lot more business able to operate and employees back at work, but Business For SA has called for the government to “prepare for an orderly, clear and swift transition through levels three and two to a functioning economy,” removing restrictions in as many sectors as is possible.
Gauteng had the highest number of beneficiaries who have been paid Covid-19 TERS benefits. Almost half of the more than R14-billion paid out so far, has been paid to 1,186,833 workers in the province via 79,271 employers.
