Andrew Stegmann

South Africa Moves to COVID-19 Lock-down Level 3 From 1 June

South Africa’s response to Covid-19 will significantly change under Alert Level 3 as all but high-risk sectors of the economy will be allowed to resume operating.

There was a general assumption under Levels 4 and 5 of the Covid-19 lockdown that almost all economic and social activities were prohibited, except for essential services and low-risk behaviour.

That will flip under Level 3, which President Cyril Ramaphosa announced will be implemented nationwide on 1 June 2020. While significant restrictions on social behaviour will continue, all economic activity except those deemed as high-risk will be allowed to resume.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Monday announced the country had 23,615 cases of Covid-19 and 481 deaths, a jump of 52 fatalities overnight.

The number of infections and deaths will continue to rise, but the rate of infection will now largely depend on how society implements hygiene and distancing guidelines as millions of people return to work and school.

The National Coronavirus Command Council is due to explain the Level 3 regulations in a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, but here’s what we know so far.

The economy

As most people will be allowed to return to work, let’s start with the industries that will remain closed.

Restaurants, bars and taverns must stay closed, except for the delivery and collection of food. Conferences, events, entertainment and sporting activities, cinemas, theatres and museums also remain prohibited. Hairdressing, beauty services, gyms and fitness centres must stay shut.

A draft copy of the regulations said domestic workers can get back to work if their employers arrange and pay for private transport.

All other sectors are allowed to resume work. Ramaphosa specifically mentioned the resumption of operations in the manufacturing, mining, construction, financial services, professional and business services, information technology, communications, government services and media services sectors. Domestic flights and accommodation will only be allowed for business travel.

If possible, you should continue to work from home. The president said anyone over the age of 60 or who has underlying conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and cancer “should ideally stay at home”.

Employers will have to implement strict physical distancing and hygiene guidelines but, as the partial resumption of the mining industry has shown, where hundreds of infections have recently been recorded, it might be difficult to monitor compliance.

Trade union federation Saftu has accused the government of sacrificing the working class to bolster employers’ profits and warned it may strike against the Level 3 regulations.

Movement

The 8pm to 5am curfew will be scrapped under Level 3 but you should only leave home to go to work, buy goods and obtain services. You can exercise at any time of the day, just not in groups, but visiting family and friends will remain prohibited.

With up to eight million people expected to return to work, all public transport services will be able to resume, including trains, which officials have warned could lead to an increased spread of the virus. People will have to wear masks on taxis and wash their hands or sanitise when getting on or off vehicles. Taxis must be sanitised regularly.

Ramaphosa said there needs to be a partnership between commuters, taxi and bus operators, businesses and government to prevent the spread of the virus on public transport but he said the transport minister would detail how it would work. Businesses have been encouraged to take responsibility for transporting their workers where possible.

The Gauteng Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Roads and Transport has slammed Prasa’s plans for resuming Metrorail services under Level 3. On Monday it said it “could lead to a public transport disaster” as Prasa only planned to open one Metrorail line and its plans for safety and screening “were not reassuring”.

Education

Grade 7 and Grade 12 learners can return to school during Level 3 and higher education institutions can allow up to 33% of students back on campus. It’s still unclear when other students will be allowed to return. Ramaphosa said the 2020 school calendar will be revised to save the school year.

“Strict infection control measures and, where necessary, additional water and sanitation infrastructure are being put in place to enable social distancing, regular hand washing and learner safety,” said Ramaphosa.

Teachers’ union Sadtu has warned that schools in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo are not ready to open. School staff were supposed to return to work on Monday but the Department of Basic Education has said some teachers could not return as they were still waiting for deliveries of personal protective equipment (PPE). There have also been reports of some PPE being stolen from schools.

Crucially, Ramaphosa said concerned parents can choose whether to send their kids to school: “It is understandable that there is some concern about the reopening of schools, and I must stress that no parent will be forced to send their child to school if they are worried about safety.”

Retail

The government was heavily criticised for the restrictions it announced on the sale of clothing under Level 4 of the lockdown and it has chosen to allow all retail activities (even the sale of open-toed shoes) under Level 3. 

You’ll be able to buy alcohol, but only on specified days and in certain hours, which are yet to be announced. The sale of tobacco products remains banned.

Gatherings

The ban on gatherings effectively remains. Funerals can still be held with a maximum of 50 people in attendance and meetings at workplaces are permitted. Religious gatherings remain prohibited, but the government is in discussion with the inter-faith community about how worshipping might be able to safely resume.

Differentiated response

The response to Covid-19 will differ in different areas. Ramaphosa listed various hotspots, defined as five infected people per every 100,000, on Sunday where teams of health experts and emergency personnel will be dispatched to provide increased prevention and care measures. Ramaphosa suggested that stricter regulations could be imposed in the hotspots, but for now, it appears they will still move to Level 3 come 1 June.

“Should it be necessary, any part of the country could be returned to alert Levels 4 or 5 if the spread of infection is not contained despite our interventions and there is a risk of our health facilities being overwhelmed,” said the President.

Level 3 infographics

To view some helpful level 3 infographics from the South African Department of Health, click here.

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann

Vodacom Launches Africa’s First Live 5G Network Which Supports Both Mobile and Fixed Wireless Services

Vodacom has switched on Africa’s first live 5G mobile network in three cities – Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town – with further rollouts planned to other parts of the country.

This network will support both mobile and fixed wireless services and is currently available on twenty live 5G sites, 18 of which are in Gauteng and 2 in Cape Town. With immediate effect, Vodacom customers with 5G enabled devices, and within a 5G coverage area, are now able to access one of the fastest and most sophisticated network connections in Africa.

Vodacom was recently assigned temporary spectrum by ICASA for the duration of the national state of disaster, including 1 x 50 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band, which has been used to fast-track our 5G launch. It also makes Vodacom the first operator to activate temporary spectrum in South Africa. Vodacom and Liquid Telecom also concluded managed network services and national roaming agreements for a national 5G network in December 2019.

As a more efficient technology than its predecessors (such as 3G and 4G), the deployment of 5G will help Vodacom manage the 40% increase in mobile network traffic and the 250% increase in fixed traffic experienced during the COVID-19 lockdown. 

Vodacom’s 5G launch in South Africa comes at an important time as it will help us improve our network efficiency during the COVID-19 national state of disaster. During this difficult and unprecedented period, we are proud to offer world class network technology to South Africa, and all of its associated benefits, as we provide an essential service to keep the country connected. This is largely due to the allocation of temporary spectrum by ICASA which has already mitigated the network congestion we have experienced since the start of the lockdown period.

Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO

Vodacom announced in 2018 that it had begun modernising its network to prepare for the deployment of standards based 5G technology in South Africa, subject to the allocation of spectrum.  5G was designed to meet the growing data and connectivity requirements of modern society, as the amount of data traffic is expected to continue growing at exponential rates. Vodacom expects to expand its initial 5G rollout as more smartphones, Wi-Fi and Fixed wireless access routers become available. The current 5G network equipment deployed also operates in the same frequency bands which are expected to be permanently assigned through an auction later in the year. Existing 4G tariffs for mobile and fixed will initially apply to Vodacom’s 5G service offering, with special 5G tariffs to be announced in due course.

Vodacom is currently offering the following 5G enabled devices, which customers can use to experience the 5G network within the coverage area of the 20 live sites (listed under Notes to Editors): 

  • Smartphones : LG V50 5G smartphone
  • Fixed Wireless Access Routers: Huawei 5G CPE PRO 

Customers can check if they are in a 5G coverage area on the Vodacom website (https://www.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/services/internet/5g ). They can then either sign up for a new 5G device deal or upgrade online. The new 5G device will be delivered to the customer’s home during the national lockdown period.

5G improves significantly on 4G in three key areas:

1. Faster speeds:

In comparison to 4G, peak speeds on 5G will increase significantly. 5G will enable fibre-like speeds using the mobile network. This will be extremely useful to download media content like 4K and even 8K movies in seconds. The higher speeds from 5G will also enable entirely new applications in future like augmented and Virtual Reality (VR) which will be helpful to realise new applications such as e-education and also new forms of entertainment like watching a sports game or music concert live in VR from home.

2. Lower latency & better reliability:

Latency is the time it takes for devices to send and receive signals between each other. Latency is very important for applications which require near real time responses, for example, between the user device and a cloud server used in gaming. In comparison to 4G where latencies are typically between 20-30 milliseconds, 5G can support latencies as low as 1 millisecond.

The lower latency from 5G will also enable entirely new applications in future such as remote robotic surgery, where decisions must be made by the remote surgeon and sent back to the surgery robot in near real time.

3. More capacity:

5G networks can also provide much more capacity for data. 5G uses spectrum in a much more efficient manner than 4G technology and is able to fit more data into the same amount of spectrum.

5G devices can connect many more “things” to the network at the same time, enabling the realisation of new applications such as smart homes and smart cities. 5G is also more efficient than 4G in terms of the energy required per bit of data which is transmitted or received.

Vodacom was the first network operator to launch a 5G commercial service in Africa in Lesotho in 2018 and was also first to bring 2G, 3G and 4G services to South Africa. The widespread rollout of 5G will support the Government’s 4IR objectives in future, and will facilitate the creation of an entirely new technologically enabled world. 5G supports entirely new applications which will enable a much smarter and more convenient way of both living, working and playing and which current 3G and 4G networks might not be able to support.

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann

Car Prices in South Africa are Set to Rise, According to Some Economists

The impact of South Africa level 5 lockdown in April on local vehicle sales is clearly visible, with the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa reporting that just 574 vehicles were sold over the entire month.

Domestic vehicle sales dropped by 98.4% from a year earlier to 574 units, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa said in an emailed statement Monday. That compares with average monthly trade of more than 41,000 units over that last 20 years.

In a research note, Nedbank noted that these low sales levels are completely unheard of and that the outlook for new vehicle sales for the rest of this year has also been dimmed by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This comes against the backdrop of an industry that was already facing a fundamentally weak domestic economy, it said.

“We expect fixed investment spending to plunge by almost 15% in 2020 and this will negatively impact sales of commercial vehicles.

“The rental industry, which has propped up passenger car sales in recent years, is also likely to cut back on purchases in the face of falling business and leisure travel, while the rand’s significant depreciation will eventually exert upward pressure on vehicle prices,” Nedbank said.

It also warned that lower activity in the vehicle sector will significantly contribute to the broad-based weakness in the economy, as vehicle manufacturing contributes 30.1% to total manufacturing and accounts for 457,000 formal sector jobs.

The group expects real GDP to contract by 7% in 2020, which is in line with the Reserve Bank’s projection of a 6.1% slump and National Treasury’s projected 5.4% contraction.

“Consumer demand will be constrained by lower incomes, the effect of which will more than offset the benefit of the 225-basis-point cut in interest rates.

“We expect fixed investment spending to plunge by almost 15% in 2020 and this will negatively impact sales of commercial vehicles.”

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann

Foreign-trained Doctors Turn to the Courts to Be Able to Work in SA

More than 100 South African doctors who studied overseas are in limbo because the country’s presiding medical board is allegedly preventing them from writing an exam that would allow them to practice in their home country. 

As South Africa’s fight against Covid-19 intensifies, News24 can reveal that a group of qualified and trained doctors are sitting at home without work. They have turned to the courts in the hope of getting an order to allow them to take the Health Professionals Council of SA (HPCSA) board exam, which would qualify them for internships at public hospitals.

In papers filed in the Gauteng High Court, 38 foreign-trained doctors allege that the HPCSA gave an assurance more than once that they would be able take the exam, only to later renege on the basis that the medical schools they studied at – in Romania, China and Guyana – are not “recognised” by the HPCSA. 

Doctors, who have been trained and qualified at foreign medical schools, have been battling with the council since at least 2018. 

Memorandum

The organisation representing the doctors, South African Internationally Trained Health Professionals Association (SAITHPA), has also written a memorandum to the Presidency and the Ministry of Health to ask them to investigate allegations of corruption, racism and victimisation faced by foreign-trained doctors.

SAITHPA claims that at least 175 foreign-trained doctors are without work because of various obstacles the HPCSA has allegedly put in their way. However, interviews News24 has done with affected doctors, who are part of the court case, as well as academics involved in internship programmes, suggest the number could be higher. 

The memorandum to the Presidency also contains allegations that doctors who wrote a board exam in January are still waiting for their results. 

This situation is sure to cause a stir among the medical fraternity, which was recently criticised by the Department of Health for roping in Cuban doctors to aid the Covid-19 fight – an effort that apparently costs more than R400 million – while dozens of trained doctors stew at home.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize defended the Cuban doctors’ arrangement, saying they were merely here to supplement medical efforts and not to take jobs.

‘Repeatedly failed’

The HPCSA has not responded to the allegations in court. The body was sent a detailed query, but did not respond for several days before publication. 

The Department of Health referred News24 to the HPCSA, but said it was aware of “some South Africans who trained in some foreign countries but have repeatedly failed HPCSA board examinations”.

“Government cannot risk employing persons who are not duly qualified,” spokesperson Popo Maja said. 

The Presidency did not respond to a request for comment. 

Court action

In court papers, Sarvashni Chetty, a doctor who graduated at the Texila American University in Guyana, alleges in an affidavit that 12 of the applicants had applied to write the board exam in 2019, but were unable to because the exam can only take 120 applicants.

On the back of this, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), on behalf of 111 foreign-trained doctors, threatened the HPCSA with legal action if the doctors were not able to sit the exam.

The HPCSA later allegedly allowed 60 of them to take the exam in January 2019, and the rest would take it in a slot in May that year. 

But the council later allegedly reneged on this commitment for some who had applied for the board exam, on the basis that “the institution from which they obtained their basic medical degree was ‘not evaluated by the relevant Medical and Dental Board previously’.”

This effectively left foreign-trained doctors in limbo, while the HPCSA would “review the curriculum offered at the universities that the applicants graduated from”, court papers allege.

‘Unanswered’

The affidavit then lists 14 times SAITHPA or doctors wrote to the HPCSA to furnish them with the details of their qualifications or to try to come to an understanding, or to place on record exactly which medical schools it did recognise. These allegedly went unanswered.  

Eventually, on 16 August, 2019, the HPCSA allegedly gave its “assurance” that those who SAITHPA represented would write “the first available examination in 2020”.

However, the following month, the HPCSA allegedly wrote to SAITHPA saying it was “unable to commit” to that arrangement. 

The other 37 applicants filed confirmatory affidavits of Chetty’s allegations. 

Her affidavit says the situation has left her and her fellow applicants suffering “severe emotional, financial and other prejudices”.

‘Invaluable in an emergency situation’

Meanwhile, the memorandum to the Presidency says results for a board exam that doctors took in January have still not been released, without a reason.

“Consequently, graduates who qualified to register for internship in the mid-year cycle, were unable to do so,” the letter reads.

Dr Robert Ian Caldwell, a retired doctor who was involved with foreign-trained medical students during his time at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Clinical Medicine, said he had also been alerted about these results not being released.

Caldwell said even though passing this exam would only qualify the doctors to take on internships, they would still be useful during a crisis such as the one the country currently faces.

“Even at the most junior level, they’d be invaluable at an emergency situation.”

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].