During his address, Mr Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa, President-elect of the Republic of South Africa, has announced that there will be an additional R2B on top of the R500M that the government has made available to assist small businesses who have been affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This brings the total of Government's direct interventions towards small businesses to R2.5 billion, this is excluding the additional R40B that will go towards income support for smmes and spaza shops who cannot be able to pay salaries and wages during this difficult time. To access these funds, everyone is expected to apply through the existing mechanisms set up by the Department of Small Business. You can learn more about available relief packages here.

President Ramaphosa also announced an introduction of a 200 billion Rand loan scheme in partnership with banks and SARB. This is to support businesses - will support over 700000 firms and 3 million employees.

There will also be several tax relief measures for businesses for a short 4 month period. This includes deferrals of tax payments even for businesses with a turn over of over 100 million Rand. It must also be noted that people who donate the solidarity fund can claim back up to 10% in rebates through the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

The President announced that the re-opening of the economy will happen in phases and that he will be addressing the nation again on the next measures of how Government plans on the next step towards trying to curb the spread of this deadly virus. At this stage, it is still not clear whether there will be an extension with regards to the lockdown or not.