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President Cyril Ramaphosa says SA does not have the money to provide the kind of aid packages envisioned in the first wave of the Covid-19 virus in 2020, especially when the country now has to fund vaccines.
“We don’t have the money, that’s the simple truth,” he said during an interview on Radio 702 on Friday.
“We are limited from a financial point of view. The aid measures we announced last year amounted to around 10% of our GDP, which is quite large for a small economy like ours … and right now we are at a stage where we have to finance vaccines, That is going to add up to a lot of money too. We are limited, ”he said.
In his last two speeches to the nation, Ramaphosa did not mention any potential relief for companies and their employees affected by the latest regulations.
While the government’s decision to return the country to lockdown level 3 will not have as severe an effect on the economy as seen before, when almost all activity came to a halt in March, it has left the hotel sector reeling.
The return of a total ban on the sale of alcohol, extended Monday, threatens to wipe out many small businesses, while key retailers, such as Makro and game owner Massmart, are poised for billions of rand in losses.
SAB, owned by AB InBev, canceled a R2.5 billion investment in infrastructure and new equipment after the latest ban. The brewery also withdrew a spending of R2.5 billion in 2020 after a 12-week sales ban.
Companies and workers have been locked in negotiations with the government over the resumption of the wage protection scheme for workers affected by the tightening of lockdown regulations. The money for the Temporary Assistance Plan for Employers / Employees (Ters) does not come from government coffers but from workers’ contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
During Friday’s interview, Ramaphosa said that he hoped the latest restrictions would not last long and did not see them as permanent or medium-to-long-term measures.
Ramaphosa did not say when the doses of 20 million vaccines would land in the country, which he said Monday were government-insured, but reiterated that SA would receive its vaccines through the Covax facility, which is sedimenting vaccines for mediums. and low-income countries, as well as through the AU’s vaccine initiative. He said SA is also making direct commitments with vaccine manufacturers.
The government has been criticized for not getting enough vaccines as a matter or urgency, especially when other countries have already started vaccinating their populations. Covax is the largest confirmed source of SA vaccines.
Ramaphosa said that SA the vaccines would come from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and portions of Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.
Through the AU, the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already calculated the allocation that each country would receive, based on the size of the population.
The African Import and Export Bank (Afreximbank) would support member states by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to $ 2 billion to manufacturers. Ramaphosa said that the bank will pay in advance and that each country will take its own share and pay the money back within five to seven years.
“We are going to get our own supply and we are going to pay for it. You can’t talk about the fact that we don’t have money for vaccines to save our people and the Treasury will make sure we have money, ”said the president.
Ramaphosa said that money was not the concern but delivery times.
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