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President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his fifth State of the Nation Address in parliament on Thursday night, addressing matters on vaccine rollouts, corruption, renewable energy procurement, Covid-19 relief grant extensions and more.
Lacklustre SONA offers glimmers of hope
By Thami Magubane, Vernon Mchunu
Feb 12, 2021
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DURBAN - The special Covid-19 R350 Relief of Distress grant is set to be extended for three more months and the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Temporary Employer-employee Relief Scheme (Ters) will be extended until March 15 for those sectors that have not been able to operate.
This was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his State of the Nation address last night.
Ramaphosa said the announcements came after ongoing discussions with government s social partners in business and labour, who proposed an extension of some of the social and economic support.
Jeffrey Abrahams/Gallo Images via Getty Images
President Cyril Ramaphosa said 1.7 million fewer people were employed in the third quarter of 2020 than in the first quarter.
The president said more than R70 billion in tax relief was extended to businesses in distress.
He added that, in the third quarter of 2020, the South African economy was 6% percent smaller than it was in the last quarter of 2019.
President Cyril Ramaphosa told Parliament during his 2021 State of the Nation Address (SONA) that the South African economy needed an urgent fix after the already beleaguered economy was rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic for much of last year.
Government and business yesterday resumed negotiations about extending relief payments for affected workers from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).