President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned about job losses occasioned by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus global pandemic.
In his weekly letter, the president said the economy was in the throes of the fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Ramaphosa said Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s revised budget on Wednesday will give an indication of government’s reprioritisation of programmes in order to fund the R500bn rescue package he announced.
“South Africa is not alone. In Italy, the UK, the US, Germany, India, China and nearly every country that had imposed some form of lockdown, jobs have been lost or hours of workers reduced. It is being spoken of as a ‘job loss tsunami’” he said.
“Last week a number of companies announced plans to retrench staff. From aviation to construction, from entertainment and leisure to hospitality, companies have indicated their intention to retrench staff because of heavy losses incurred over the past three months. In other cases, businesses are closing permanently,” he added.
Ramaphosa said the public sector was also facing the challenges that the private sector was facing as a result of COVID-19.
This comes as the SABC and SAA indicated plans to reduce their workforce.
Ramaphosa noted that government’s revenue had plummeted and that difficult decisions would be made in the coming weeks.
“For a country such as ours, which was already facing an unemployment crisis and weak economic growth, difficult decisions and difficult days lie ahead,” he said.
