President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Thursday, 11 February in strict adherence to the National State of Disaster regulations. In his address, Ramaphosa compared the country’s resilience to hardy Fynbos of the native land saying that the country can survive the harshest circumstances and can certainly withstand the pandemic.
Ramaphosa said that the grave damage of Covid-19 is nearly one-and-a-half million of people who were affected and infected by the novel coronavirus. He said: “We must defeat the coronavirus pandemic; that is the primary aim in all we do. And second, we must accelerate our economic recovery. Third, we must implement economic reforms to create sustainable jobs and drive inclusive growth. And finally, we must fight corruption and strengthen the state.”
Ramaphosa said that fundamental to the nation’s recovery is an unrelenting and comprehensive response to overcome the coronavirus. “This
year, we must do everything in our means to contain and overcome this pandemic.This means intensifying our prevention efforts and strengthening our health system. It also means that we must undertake a massive vaccination programme to save lives and dramatically reduce infections across the population,” he added.
He applauded the scientist on the vaccine and said that the first 80 000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will arrive next week which will be for frontline healthcare workers, with 500 000 more doses to follow over the next month. “Since this variant is now the dominant variant in our country, these findings have significant implications for the pace, design and sequencing of our vaccine programme. While it should not delay the start of the vaccination programme by much, it will affect the choice of vaccines and the manner of their deployment,” said the president. He said that engagements are continuing with other vaccine manufacturers to secure sufficient quantities of vaccines that are suitable to SA’s conditions. “All provinces have roll-out plans in place as the first vaccines come through. We have secured 12 million vaccine doses from the global COVAX facility and this will be complemented by other vaccines that are available to South Africa through the AU’s African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team facility as well. Pfizer has committed 20 million vaccine doses commencing with deliveries at the end of the first quarter,” he added.
Touching on the recovery of SA’s economy, Ramaphosa said localisation is key. He emphasised on the master plan in industries such as clothing, motoring, cane and chicken production are dominant in SA and should be sourced locally. On employment the president said that in the 2020/2021 financial year, more than R1.3 billion has been provided in support mainly for small-and medium-sized businesses. “In addition, to the 1.3 billion over R70 billion in tax relief was extended to businesses in distress. Around R18.9 billion in loans have been approved for 13 000 businesses through the loan guarantee scheme,” he said.
Ramaphosa said that Eskom has been restructured into three separate entities for generation, transmission and distribution.This will lay the foundations for an efficient, modern and competitive energy system. “Eskom is making substantial progress with its intensive maintenance and operational excellence programmes to improve the reliability of its coal fleet.We are working closely with Eskom on proposals to improve its financial position, manage its debt and reduce its dependence on the fiscus,” he said.
He added: “Government will soon be initiating the procurement of an additional 11 800 megawatts of power from renewable energy, natural gas, battery storage and coal in line with the Integrated Resource Plan 2019. Despite this work, Eskom estimates that, without additional capacity, there will be an electricity supply shortfall of between 4 000 and 6 000 megawatts over the next five years, as old coal-fired power stations reach their end of life. As part of the measures to address this shortfall, we will in the coming weeks issue a request for proposals for 2 600 megawatts from wind and solar energy as part of Bid Window 5. This will be followed by another bid window in August 2021.”
He spoke about Operation Vulindlela a project focusing on reforms in the electricity, water, telecommunications and transport sectors, as well as reforms to our visa and immigration regime. “In the water sector, we are working through Operation Vulindlela to
ensure that water license applications are finalised within the revised time frame of 90 days and to revive the Green Drop and Blue Drop programmes to strengthen water quality monitoring. We will finalise and implement the revised raw water pricing strategy, and accelerate the establishment of a national Water Resources Infrastructure Agency,” the president said.
Ramaphosa said that Durban will be repositioned as a hub port for the southern hemisphere and developing Ngqura as the container terminal of choice. He said that the momentum that Operation Vulindlela has already built, and the support that it has received across government, shows that we are serious about reform. Speaking on the leadership in municipality Ramaphosa said that they will re-look at the appointment of officials, making sure that only properly qualified officials at a local level are appointed to ensure effective management and provision of services.
“We will shortly be appointing the members of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, which is a multi-sectoral body that will oversee the initial implementation of the strategy and the establishment of an independent statutory anti-corruption body that reports to parliament. When reports started to surface last year about possible fraud and corruption in the procurement of Covid-related goods and services, we acted decisively to put a stop to these practices, to investigate all allegations and to act against those responsible. We established a fusion centre, which brings together key law enforcement agencies to share information and resources.”
One of the topics the citizens were waiting to hear about is that of crime and the president said that tackling crime is central to the success of the country’s recovery.
He said: “Crimes like cable theft, railway infrastructure vandalism, land invasions, construction site disruptions and attacks on truck drivers hamper economic activity and discourage investment. We have taken steps and will continue to stop these crimes and deal with those responsible in terms of the law. Task teams have been set up in a number of provinces to deal with extortion and violence on sites of economic activity. We are also fast-tracking the implementation and capacitation of the Border Management Agency to curb illegal immigration and cross-border crime.
Ending gender-based violence is imperative if we lay claim to being a society rooted in equality and non-sexism. When I launched the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence in April last year I made a promise to the women and children of this country that we were going to strengthen the criminal justice system to prevent them being traumatised again, and to ensure that perpetrators face justice.”
To give effect to this, three key pieces of legislation were introduced in Parliament last year to make the criminal justice system more effective in combatting gender-based violence. To ensure that perpetrators are brought to book, we are making progress in reducing the backlog of gender-based violence cases and continue to provide care and support to survivors of gender-based violence.
He said that gender-based violence will only end when everyone takes responsibility for doing so in their homes, in their communities, in their workplaces, in their places of worship and in their schools. He says that the pandemic resulted in several businesses struggling and many families continue to suffer as the job market slowly recovers.
“Over the last few months, we have had ongoing discussions with our social partners in business and labour, who proposed an extension of some of the social and economic support. We have therefore decided to extend the period for the Special Covid-19 Grant of R350 by a further three months. This has proven to be an effective and efficient short-term measure to reduce the immediate impact on the livelihoods of poor South Africans. We have also decided to extend the Covid-19 TERS benefit until 15 March 2021 only for those sectors that have not been able to operate.
The conditions of this extension and the sectors to be included will be announced after consultations with social partners at NEDLAC. The National Treasury will
work with its partners and stakeholders on improvements to the loan guarantee scheme so that it better addresses the realities of SMMEs and other businesses as they strive to recover,” Ramaphosa said. He said that it is the citizens’ resilience that will help the country recover.
