Business network believes terminating State of Disaster will help revive economy

Local business networks, Northrand Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) and Randburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) have welcomed government’s decision to end the National State of Disaster.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on April 4 that the government decided to terminate the National State of Disaster that was introduced on 15 March 2020 in a response to the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.

Chairperson of NCCI and president of RCCI Richard Ntjana said both local business networks welcome this move. “As RCCI and NCCI, we are very much happy that finally things are getting back to normal. The pandemic has brought so much pain [of lives lost and a multitude of job losses]. It has contributed immensely to the rising unemployment rate in our country. We hope that government will introduce measures to help revive local economy,” Ntjana said.

He believed that the recent unrest in Diepsloot and deaths of people were the results of unemployment. “With the unemployment rate now sitting at 34% and above 50% among youth, it should be expected that incidents of unrest are bound to happen and cause a negative impact to the local economy.”

He said there was, however, a light at the end of the tunnel after the South African Revenue Service (SARS) collected more than R1.3 trillion in the 2021/2022 financial year. “There is hope for South Africa with SARS having broken its record after collecting over R1.3 trillion during a very difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic. This means [when] working together as private and public sector, we can win the war against poverty and unemployment.”

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