21 April 2020

The ANC Caucus in Parliament fully welcomes the Covid-19 economic relief efforts announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa to mitigate the impact of loss of income by those in the workforce, including small businesses and creative workers, as a necessary, robust and well-considered response to alleviate the social distress emanating from the lockdown.

Caucus further welcomes strides made on the health front through the mass screening and testing community-based initiative undertaken thus far and salutes health workers on the frontline for their heroic efforts amidst many challenges. We further call on our communities to present themselves for this mass screening and testing initiative as well as adhere to hygienic and preventative measures outlined by the Department of Health.

The far-reaching, multi-pronged three phase approach will see measures such as; tax relief, release of disaster relief funds, R500 billion social relief and economic support package that will be outlined in the next few days, including support to companies in the forms of tax relief and the UIF wage support.

Acknowledging that the measures announced tonight are a product of a social compact between government, business, labour and the NEDLAC Community Constituency, ANC Chief Whip Cde Pemmy Majodina welcomes the sense of great patriotism and selflessness that accompanied this social compact.

As the ANC in Parliament, we welcome these measures as they will alleviate hunger in the most vulnerable communities, especially amongst the unemployed, children, women and the aged, as well as assist municipalities in bringing about emergency water services, sanitation of public transport, public infrastructure, food and shelter for the homeless.

In conclusion, as the ANC Caucus, we commit to play our robust oversight to ensure that the said Stimulus Disaster Relief reaches its intended beneficiaries.

We further encourage and call upon all civil servants responsible for carrying out this national mandate to rise to the occasion and implement all these decisions diligently in a non-partisan manner

Issued by the Office of the Chief Whip, Comrade Pemmy Majodina

Enquiries:

Nomfanelo Kota
Acting Caucus Spokesperson
0767336511