Ramaphosa sets aside billions for economic and social relief
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a massive R500 billion economic and social relief package to beat the effects of the coronavirus.
The president said this money will come from repurposing R130 billion in the government’s budget, and other money from local and international sources.
Ramaphosa said the government will inject money into healthcare to ensure that there is sufficient protective gear, staff and bed space and ventilators at hospitals.
The president announced a budget of R50 billion for social relief.
The president announced an increase of to child grant beneficiaries, who will receive an extra R300 for the month of May, then an extra R500 for five months thereafter.
All other grant beneficiaries will receive an extra R250 a month for the next three months.
All unemployed people, who are not collecting UIF or another grant, will get R350 per month for six months.
He said an additional R20 billion will be made to municipalities for emergency water supply, public transport and sanitation, and also to provide food and shelter for the homeless.
An additional R100 billion will be set aside to protect jobs during this time, and to create jobs.
R40 billion has been set aside for income support for employees whose employers are unable to pay wages.
Companies that support the Solidarity Fund will receive 10% deduction to their taxable income.
An additional R20 billion will be made available to municipalities for emergency water supply, public transport and sanitation, and also to provide food and shelter for the homeless.
Ramaphosa said there will be a “phased” reintroduction of the normal economy, led by expert opinions. He said the country will have to respond to the crisis as it develops.
“We will and we must do whatever it takes to recover from this humanitarian crisis,” he said.
He will address the country again on Thursday, where he will discuss the phased reopening of the economy.
A full calendar year without a Springbok match: that danger sadly exists under present global circumstances … but might it help them create a new milestone for longevity in remaining unbeaten following a World Cup trophy success?
It seems an intriguing enough thought. A full 2020 wipe-out of their scheduled home Tests against Scotland (two) and Georgia, the Rugby Championship, and an intended four further games on an end-of-year European tour would see the Boks probably remain out of action all the way to the start of the major 2021 three-Test series against the British and Irish Lions from 24 July.
That would mean a gap of almost 21 months, from 2 November last year when they beat England 32-12 in the RWC 2019 showpiece at Yokohama, to the first Test against the Lions at FNB Stadium.
It would be a pretty formidable “automatic ticket” to unbeaten status from a time lapse point of view, and also be a strange way for a new head coach, Jacques Nienaber, to painstakingly begin his tenure if his 2020 is a complete no-go for Test activity.
The 21 months would quickly mean the Springboks leapfrog several prior RWC-winning teams in calendar-length terms for staying unbeaten – including both their compatriot predecessors, of 1995 and 2007.
Francois Pienaar’s outfit of ’95 (and a bit beyond for some, including him) won the Webb Ellis Cup at Ellis Park on that immortal June 24 day in front of Nelson Mandela, and won four further matches before suffering a 21-16 defeat to Australia in the inaugural Tri-Nations competition at Sydney on 13 July 1996 – an unbeaten period of almost 13 months.
After winning the World Cup on 20 October 2007 in France, John Smit’s team also won their next four Tests before succumbing to New Zealand 19-8 in Wellington on 5 July the following year: around eight and a half months onward.
But now for the more sobering news: if the current Boks fancy going a landmark-setting, near eternity since their Japan-hosted heroics without further setback, it will take some doing … even if they are to enjoy the solid head start of a guaranteed 21 months.
The record for an RWC-winning team staying unbeaten subsequently is held by the victorious All Blacks of the maiden 1987 World Cup (20 June triumph in that showpiece): in pure calendar terms, they remained without a loss – though there was one draw involved – for an incredible three years and two months onward.
That was up to 18 August 1990, when they finally crashed to Nick Farr-Jones’s Wallabies 21-9 in Wellington after a further 16 wins and one stalemate following the World Cup hoisting by David Kirk.
Two other RWC-winning New Zealand sides also had praiseworthy records for some time after their trophy successes: the 2011 team lasted about 13 months (12 wins, one draw) undefeated, and the 2015 side some 20 months (15 wins).
JUNIOR IT TESTER (DURBAN) in Kwazulu-Natal | Other IT/Computer | Job Mail | 4675718
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An internationally recognized company dealing with information technology within the online gambling industry in Durban has a vacancy for a Junior IT Tester to join their energetic team
Requirements:
Mathematical/ IT/ Accounting or Technical Degree/ Diploma
1 – 2 years’ Experience in a similar role within the online Gambling Industry
Regulatory compliance auditing for the online gambling industry would be an advantage
Excellent Written and Verbal Communication Skills
Valid Driver’s license and own transport
Ability to work under pressure
Proven Track Record
Please take note: if you have not been contacted within 14 days, please consider your application unsuccessful.
Cape Town company. Mechanical Design Engineer required to be involved in design of international Automotive parts and complete Automotive designs.Main function is design but will also be involved in prioritizing technical problems and new projects for the companyââ¬â¢s main client.
Senior Mechanical Design Engineer
Cape Town
International Product Development company, specializing in developing commercial vehicle products and systems. Complete Automotive designs from first principles as well as improvement on existing Products ranges.
Qualification and key skills required:
B Eng. / BSc in Mechanical Engineering
Must have a minimum of 7 years design experience
Responsibilities:
Preparation of ideas in the form of CAD models and presentations.
Preparation of manufacturing and supplier part drawings to be released into the system for manufacturing and purchasing.
Prepare and structure product information to create parts, assemblies and drawings. Additionally, maintaining CAD Assembly structures for all level of vehicle product.
Preparation and administration of prototype parts and test requests for proposed design fixes and new options.
Preparation and maintenance of Body Builder customer CAD data for reference.
Improvement design and development for new minor options, changes, upgrades and later growing into larger scope product changes and development.
Recent studies show that people infected with the new coronavirus could be spreading “aerosolised” viral particles as they cough, breathe or talk in a 13ft (4m) radius, and viral particles can also move around on people’s shoes.
But there was also good news from the studies: Standard protective gear appears to effectively shield health care workers from these aerosolised droplets and infection, and even cloth face masks could curb the spread of exhaled droplets.
Reading over the findings, emergency medicine physician Dr Robert Glatter said they are a reminder that any form of physical distancing should help curb new cases of Covid-19.
“The bottom line is that maintaining some distance from others is better than none,” said Glatter, who works at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “Six feet (1.8m) is better than 5ft (1.5m). In the age of coronavirus, the more the better. It really comes down to the likelihood of viral transmission.”
Virus all over floor
In one study, Chinese researchers tracked viral “distribution” in hospital wards in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus pandemic emerged. From 19 February to 2 March, “we collected swab samples from potentially contaminated objects in the ICU and general ward,” said a team led by Dr Zhen-Dong Guo, of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing.
“We also sampled indoor air and the air outlets to detect aerosol exposure,” the researchers explained.
As the doctors noted, when people exhale, heavier droplets (potentially containing virus) tend to drop to the ground because of gravity, whereas lighter droplets can remain suspended in breathable air.
Their tests found that 70% of swab samples from the hospital floor came up positive for coronavirus, “perhaps because of gravity and air flow causing most virus droplets to float to the ground”, the study authors said.
“In addition, as medical staff walk around the ward, the virus can be tracked all over the floor, as indicated by the 100% rate of positivity from the floor in the [hospital] pharmacy, where there were no patients,” the researchers said. “Therefore, the soles of medical staff shoes might function as carriers.”
Not surprisingly, swabs taken of often-touched surfaces – doorknobs, bed rails, trash cans and computer mice – typically came up positive for coronavirus.
Protective gear thwarts infection
And what about the air people breathe? The closer to an infected patient, the more likely an air sample was to come up positive, Guo’s group said. “Virus-laden aerosols were mainly concentrated near and downstream from the patients,” the team reported.
But tiny airborne aerosols could travel farther than the 6 feet (1.8m) now recommended in most physical distancing advisories. In fact, “the maximum transmission distance of [coronavirus] aerosol might be 4m (13ft),” Guo’s group reported. They published their findings online on 10 April in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The Chinese study did have one good piece of news: Protective gear worn by hospital staff appears to thwart viral infection. “As of 30 March, no staff members at Huoshenshan Hospital had been infected,” despite widespread contamination of air and surfaces, the team noted.
Another study of the aerosolisation of exhaled droplets was published online on 15 April in the New England Journal of Medicine. In that study, a team from the US National Institutes of Health and the University of Pennsylvania used “laser light scattering” technology to track the dispersion of droplets from the mouth during normal speech.
The researchers found that droplets were dispersed into the air, but wearing a “slightly damp washcloth over the speaker’s mouth” effectively stopped most of the dispersion.
In a related commentary on that study, Harvard University molecular biologist Matthew Meselson said it “suggests the advisability of wearing a suitable mask whenever it is thought that infected persons may be nearby”.
Science continues to evolve
For his part, Glatter said that “while 6 feet is certainly ideal based on recommendations by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we are now learning that aerosolised droplets from coughing or sneezing, which may then be carried by currents indoors and outside, may make this distance less than ideal.”
Still, he said, the science on all of this continues to evolve.
“The truth is this: We don’t know what it truly takes to get infected with the virus, including the amount of virus necessary to actually initiate an infection,” Glatter said. “In fact, it may not require infected surfaces or droplets after all, just aerosols. We just don’t know. Research on this concept continues to expand and evolve.”
Glatter stressed that other factors – including how deeply into the lungs viral particles penetrate, and the strength of a person’s immune system – are also involved in the infection process.
Dr Eric Cioe Pena directs global health at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, New York. Reading over the Chinese study, he agreed that “the potential for this virus to spread via aerosols is particularly scary, because it’s essentially a hybrid between an airborne and a droplet virus, and that the droplets are able to hang out in the air for an extensive period of time and potentially infect other people”.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has informed Parliament he had authorised the deployment of an additional 73 180 members of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) to assist the police in battling the spread of Covid-19.
In a letter to the Joint Standing Committee on Defence – which was tweeted by DA leader in the National Assembly John Steenhuisen – Ramaphosa said the extra troops would be deployed until 26 June 2020, augmenting the 2 280 who were already deployed.
The deployment will cost the fiscus almost R5 billion and it will consist of regular, reserve and auxiliary forces.
Steenhuisen said the development was “very worrying”.
“This seems to suggest that the ‘hard lockdown’ will be enforced longer, beyond next Friday’s deadline. We can’t extend the lockdown into perpetuity. I would rather spend the money on testing and tracing to make sure we know exactly what the extent of the virus is.
“This [the deployment] is not a good sign. Friday is going to be a turning point when people get their reduced salaries, debit orders start going off … we hope the soldiers aren’t being called up to enforce the lockdown.”
The committee’s chairperson, Cyril Xaba, has confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
“The committee has received the letter and will be discussing the contents thereof on Wednesday. Four other letters were also received dealing with the extension of deployments in the DRC as well as a deployment in the Mozambican Channel and the Wuhan repatriation,” he told News24.
Helmoed Romer-Heitman, who is an independent defence analyst and correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly, said the deployment would rank among the biggest in the country’s history.
“The biggest I can recall was during the election in 1994, and that was certainly bigger than anything during the Bush War. It also seems that almost the entire SANDF is being called up.
“The total complement is something like 73 000, 74 000, so this is all of it. The Reserve Force takes it up to 85 000, 86 000 service members. So, this is a biggie.”
The letter was made public just moments before Ramaphosa was due to address the country at 8:30pm on Tuesday.
Cyril Xaba, chairperson of the joint standing committee of defence has confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
“The committee has received the letter and will be discussing the contents thereof on Wednesday. Four other letter were also received, dealing with the extension of deployments in the DRC, as well as a deployment in the Mozambican Channel and the Wuhan repatriation,” he told News24.
This communication sets out the supervisory body responses of the Prudential Authority, the National Payment System Department, the Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank, as well as the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (jointly referred to as the Authorities) having consulted the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) regarding the Covid‑19 pandemic. This response focuses on the observed and possible impact of the pandemic on South African accountable institutions (AIs) which are supervised by the Authorities. It also relates to ensuring the compliance of AIs with their legislative obligations in terms of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, Act 38 of 2001 (the FIC Act).
The Authorities recognise that the Covid-19 pandemic may have an impact on the manner in which AIs operate, particularly in regard to their compliance with certain provisions of the FIC Act. The Authorities are also cognisant that the Covid-19 pandemic may present criminals with further opportunities to engage in illicit or unlawful activity.
This communication resonates with the statement[1] published by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on 1 April 2020, which encourage governments to work with AIs and other businesses in support of Covid-19 aid and efforts to curtail the spread thereof, whilst remaining alert to new and emerging risks. The statement encouraged applying flexibility to the application of the FATF’s risk-based approach, and the fullest use of reliable digital customer on-boarding. Such an approach would accord well with the discretion and flexibility afforded to AIs as reflected in the customer due diligence obligations of the FIC Act.
The Authorities nevertheless expect that AIs continue to operate their businesses in a prudent and socially responsible manner in ensuring compliance with the FIC Act obligations. To this end, the communication further outlines some of the potential actions that can be taken by AIs to assist in achieving compliance with the FIC Act.
The Authorities implore AIs to act prudently whilst remaining cognisant of the role the financial sector plays within the broader South African economy, as well as their role in countering and mitigating money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risk in this sector.
The Authorities may engage further with the affected AIs and all other relevant stakeholders during this time and may issue further communication or implement any additional measures as and when necessary as further analysis on the impact of Covid-19 is conducted.
My client is online gambling business based in Cape Town and they are recruiting for a Customer Service Manager to join their business. As the Customer Service Manager, you will be responsible for overseeing the customer service team, which consists of over ten people. You will also ensure that customers are offered an excellent service. This is a hands-on managerial role with lots of responsibility in a fun and fast paced environment. The business is part of a larger group which means having extra resources at your disposal.
The culture is very friendly, hardworking and entrepreneurial. The company is very successful and leading in its sector. There is huge potential for growth in the business.
Your responsibilities will include:
Managing the team which consists on team leaders + customer service agents
Overseeing + reporting on team performance + productivity)
Setting KPI’s for the team
Driving initiatives to increase sales activity
Managing Service Level Agreements
Working closely with other departments such as marketing
Reporting + productivity
Ensure best practice with contracts, customer data + security
Coaching + developing the team
Managing technical issues + IT problems
Creating team roster
Requirements
The ideal candidate will have:
Minimum of 2 years in a managerial customer service role
Open to industry but sports, gambling, betting etc. would be ideal
Exposure to call center technology would be beneficial
Solid Microsoft skills – Excel, Word
Strong team leader with excellent customer service skills
Positive, engaging, upbeat
If this sounds like you then get in touch with Amplified Talent to discuss further.
Posted on 21 Apr 15:22
Amplified Talent
Amplified Talent, your personal solution for premium digital recruitment delivered to agencies and brands who require the very best that the market has to offer.
Our client specialises in Hybrid Cloud base solutions for customers around the world. Predominately offering HR and financial solutions. The team consists of maverick minded, passionate Java gurus.
If this sounds you like a cup of tea, then don’t delay and send your CV today!
Requirements
IT degree preferable; diploma would be considered
Java Certification preferred
Well Rounded Java developer with five+ years’ solid development experience
Back-end and front-end development
Knowledgeable about cloud-native applications
Exposure to different software architectures, e.g. monolith vs microservices
Experience with containers – advantageous
Angular 1
Angular 2 – 7 advantageous
Good SQL skills are required
Java Script – advantageous
Web technologies – advantageous
JavaScript testing + build skills
Optimization Skills
Disciplined in testing
The reference number for this position is ZH49081. It’s a renewable contract position based in Houghton Johannesburg offering a permanent salary of up to R700k pa negotiable based on experience, skill level and education. Contact Zara onZarah@e-merge.co.za or call her on 011 463 3633 to discuss this and other opportunities.
Are you ready for a change of scenery? E-Merge IT Recruitment is a specialist niche recruitment agency. We offer our candidates options so that we can successfully place the right developers with the right companies in the right roles. Check out the e-Merge website for more great positions.
Do you have a friend who is a developer or technology specialist? We pay cash for successful referrals!
Posted on 21 Apr 14:37
Apply by email Zara Harvey
Or apply with your Biz CV
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We are looking for grocery shopping assistants in Port Elizabeth. Your job will be to assist the team in getting groceries delivered to people’s doorsteps. You will want to work full time 6 days a week, 8am-5pm, R1550 per week plus tips. Please apply if you’re ready to start immediately. Your main role will be to pick and pack groceries and hand them to our delivery drivers who will deliver them to our customers. The ideal candidates are people who have worked in supermarkets or retail before. Must have a mobile phone Apply now and let’s get to work.
Email CV to:retail@agfgroup.co.za
