Business presses the government on a new round of relief payments amid the second wave.
Talks between business and government about the Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) resumed on 13 January at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) in Johannesburg.
Discussions centred around extending relief payments from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) due to the fallout from Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
UIF spokesperson Lungelo Mkamba said deliberations between social partners had been reopened after the scheme came to an end in October last year. “I can confirm that discussions are taking place within the Nedlac process and once this is finalised, it will be communicated,” Mkamba said. “Covid-19 Ters payments for previous periods from April to September 15, 2020 are, however, still ongoing, as corrections are done by applicants and we reprocess the claims.”
Mkamba said the UIF has a plan to finalise these claims while continuing with payments for the September 16 to October 15 period, which commenced in December.
He said as of January 8, 2021, the UIF had paid R56.7 billion to 13.2 million workers from 1.1 million employer applications since the first lockdown in March to provide relief to workers affected by Covid-19.
The prolonged lockdown has been devastating for hundreds of businesses, most acutely for those in the tourism, hospitality and liquor industries.
Business Unity South Africa (Busa) expressed concern about the economic impact of extending the lockdown to February 15 and the total ban on liquor sales. Busa chief executive Cas Coovadia said the business community remains very concerned about the economic impact on the liquor, tourism and hospitality sectors as a result of the total ban on liquor sales.
BNP Paribas’ senior economist Jeff Schultz said South Africa’s recovery in 2021 would likely fail to meet expectations, explaining that: “Fundamental to our thinking is that many of the structural weaknesses that pushed the economy into recession before the pandemic will scupper the pace of recovery.”
