I wish to address you this evening on two matters that are of great interest and concern to South Africans as we struggle to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.
Even as the country braces for the difficult weeks ahead, it is significant that more than half of those people who we know to have been infected have now recovered.Although it may be too early to tell, this development provides some hope that the province may have passed the peak of infections. It remains our utmost priority to ensure that we do everything possible to minimise the loss of life.
Over the last few days, the Department of Basic Education has met with more than 60 organisations representing parents, school governing bodies, principals, educators, independent schools and civil society organisations. What everyone does agree on, however, is that the health, academic and social development of learners must remain our foremost concerns.
The Minister of Basic Education will provide details on the management of the remainder of the school year. We ask you to do this because we believe it is important to ensure that schools do not become sites of transmission at a time when infections are rising fast. These funders include multilateral development banks, who have heeded the call to support their member countries during this crisis.
By the end of this month, an additional R15 billion will have been paid out to social grant recipients. Special assistance has also been provided to businesses in the tourism, sports and creative industries.In partnership with the banks, through the R200 billion loan guarantee scheme, financial support has been provided to more than 8,600 small and medium-sized companies to the value of R12 billion.
But what concerns me, and what concerns all South Africans, are those instances where funds are stolen, where they are misused, where goods are overpriced, where food parcels are diverted from needy households – where there is corruption and mismanagement of public funds. Regulations were put in place to prohibit unjustified price hikes and ensure the availability of essential goods.
In addition to all these measures we have established a collaborative and coordinating centre to strengthen the collective efforts among law enforcement agencies so as to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute COVID-related corruption.
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