COVID-19 STATE OF DISASTER AND OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: Update (28 September 2020)

LOCKDOWN LEVEL 1

Gatherings

• A ministerial directive gazetted on 23 September:
  • restricts to 250 and 500 respectively the number of attendees at any indoor or outdoor function
  • limits all venues to using 50% of their capacity.
• These ‘limitations’ exclude people ‘participating through electronic platforms’.
• It is mandatory for a ‘certificate of occupancy’ to be displayed by the owner or operator of:
  • a restaurant
  • conference centre
  • meetings venue
  • wedding, exhibition or functions venue
  • hotel, lodge, bed-and-breakfast, time share facility, resort, or guest house, and
  • casino.
• The certificate should stipulate the maximum number of people the venue or facility may hold.

 

DEVELOPMENTS UNRELATED TO THE COVID-19 STATE OF DISASTER

Digital and future skills strategy

 

• The national strategy gazetted on 23 September focuses on:
  • digital foundations
  • digital futures and mastery
  • skills for the fourth industrial revolution and the world of work, and
  • four ‘cross-cutting’ elements dealing with building digital skills awareness.

 

Energy

 

• A ministerial determination on new energy generation capacity procurement from independent power producers gazetted on 25 September enables the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to procure (for Eskom to purchase):
  • 513 MW from ‘storage’ (2022)
  • 6 800 MW using photovoltaic and wind technologies (2022 to 2024)
  • 3 000 MW using gas (2024 to 2027) and,
  • 1500 MW using coal (2023 to 2027).
• These allocations are informed by the 2019 integrated resource plan.

 

Fire services

 

• A White Paper published on 25 September:
  • places fire safety and prevention at the centre of all fire services
  • recognises the importance of responding more appropriately to the ‘new risks’ posed by changes in the built and natural environment, and
  • notes the financial challenges already facing local government.
• Policy imperatives include:
  • overhauling all related legislation
  • developing a national education and training strategy, and
  • introducing a national fire code.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby