With Coronavirus (COVID-19) expected to have a negative impact on the economy, the South African government has announced measures that seek to mitigate the impact.
At a ministerial media briefing on government’s COVID-19 intervention, Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel on Monday said government had identified six focus areas.
“These will seek to support efforts of containing the spread of the virus and ensuring that there are economic means to fight it off,” Patel said on Monday.
The first one will see government monitoring the impact of the virus on the global economy and critical export channels that South Africa depends on.
“Secondly, we’ve worked to secure supplies of basic public hygiene and medical stocks,” Patel said.
The third area is on industrial measures that protect against infection. The fourth is on the organisation of industry, with less potential downtime and short-time in shutdowns.
“Fifth, we are in discussion on measures to deal with the anticipation global economic slowdown. Finally, looking at securing supply chains and dealing with disruptions,” he said.
Later this afternoon, Patel and the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, will meet the business community leadership and trade unions at a specially convened EXCO NEDLAC [National Economic Development and Labour Council] meeting.
“We will sit with colleagues and develop common approaches and common communication, so we have a coordinated response,” he said.
Patel said government has also been reaching out to various sectors for discussions.
“We have been in communication with the food and beverage sectors, steel, auto, retail, pharmaceutical, mining companies and importers of the basic foods that we eat.
“It is important to secure stocks, the provision of hand sanitisers, masks, gloves and protective clothing and test kits; to analyse and quantify existing production capabilities, and to look at what needs to be done to scale up and what some of the constraints are.”
He said government is working on getting every sector to be on board with plans to limit and avoid the spread in the workplace through social distance provision in areas such canteens and clocking off.
“All of these will be rapidly worked on after the NEDLAC meeting,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
