A Week That Was ...

Another eventful week was in the cards again this past week. Some of these notable events include commuters waking up on Monday morning to no taxis due to a one-day #taxistrike. In these trying times that we live in where jobs have become a precious commodity, while some employees decided to go back home because there was no other alternative, others decided to brave the wintry weather and venture the trip to work on foot in an effort to save their jobs. These days of an ailing economy riddled with massive retrenchment announcements at every turn, people with jobs want to protect and save them. Last week we spoke about the succession of retrenchments that took place, that week alone.

This week, Statistics South Africa published its first Quarterly Labour Force Survey and the results showed that the #unemploymentrate from January to March 2020 is at 30.1%, which is an increase by 1.0 percentage point compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. However, we do know that this is not a true reflection of the current unemployment rate in the country. Based on the number of job losses that we have seen since the end of March to date. We certainly anticipate that this figure is still going to increase for the second quarter.

In addition, this week Finance Minister Tito Mboweni also delivered a #SupplementaryBudget Speech. While he informed us that the budget included plans to revive our economy he also said that the South African economy was expected to shrink by 7.2 percent in 2020. This confirms what we already know about the threat to livelihoods. We must keep our seatbelts buckled on tight. The ride is still going to get bumpy.

This is all against the backdrop of Covid-19 where the number of cases continues to increase more rapidly and the death toll is rising. We have now surpassed the 100 000 mark in cases and 2000 mark in the death toll. While many people have gone back to work, others continue to work from home. We also have the debate around the opening of schools.

In all this, we cannot afford to get complacent and forget that we are still in the fight for our lives against an invisible enemy. Let us not let our guard down. We have to be vigilant. In our #workplaces let us continue to ensure that our employees receive all the protection that they need to keep them safe. This is not the time to cut corners. Let us please do the right thing and ensure that living with #Covid-19 is integrated into all parts of our daily lives be it at home or at work because it is going to be around with us for a while.