South Africa

A Pretoria company is in hot water after implementing excessive price hikes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Social Development in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation aims to improve the standard of Early Childhood Development (ECD) across the country as part of this year’s Child Protection Week campaign.

Outdoor enthusiasts now have something to smile about as hunting, self-drive visits to private or public game reserves and national parks, as well as recreational fishing is now permitted under lockdown level 3.

During alert level 3 of the nationwide lockdown, lovebirds can officially tie the knot at Home Affairs offices following the resumption of marriage services.

Having already paid out R16.5-billion in Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (TERS), the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has vowed to ensure that outstanding payments are promptly processed.

Twenty-two new COVID-19 related deaths have been recorded, as the number of infections climbed to 34 357 on Monday.

Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille has appealed to companies to exercise extreme vigilance to ensure the health and safety of employees as more businesses open, including the construction industry.

Over 100 000 unemployed South Africans in May received R350 from the special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress, SASSA has confirmed.

The 116 867, said the South African Social Services Agency (SASSA) on Monday in a statement, were part of 13 million applications received. However, only 6.3 million of these were valid, complete applications.

SASSA spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said, to date, over 3.5 million applicants had been checked to confirm if they are either active SASSA grant recipients, were on the UIF database or receive a NSFAS stipend.

The Public Enterprises Department says it has received a draft Business Rescue Plan for South African Airways, which is under business rescue.

The department's spokesperson, Sam Mkokeli, on Monday said government has not yet discussed the plan and no decisions have been taken on some of the proposals it contains. 

The airline went into voluntary business rescue in December and introduced a radical restructuring process to ensure its financial and operational sustainability to reduce its ongoing impact on the fiscus.

Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa says the youth of 2020 have been called upon to fight a much more silent war, the COVID-19 pandemic, and to help to rebuild society.