COVID-19

• Relaxed Covid-19 State of Disaster management measures announced on 30 September by President Cyril Ramaphosa have been confirmed in regulations for adjusted lockdown level one, which now applies nationwide. As the President stated:
  • each day, the hours of the curfew will begin at midnight, ending at 04:00 the following morning
  • ‘non-essential establishments’ including ‘restaurants, bars and fitness centres’ will be expected to close by 23:00, allowing employees and patrons to travel home before the curfew begins
  • the maximum number of people permitted to gather indoors and outdoors has been increased to 750 and 2000 respectively
  • ‘where the venue is too small to accommodate these numbers with appropriate social distancing, … no more than 50% cent of the capacity of the venue may be used’
  • these relaxed restrictions apply to religious services, political and social events, restaurants, bars, taverns and ‘similar places’ where gatherings occur
  • although the maximum number of people permitted at a funeral has been increased to 100, night vigils, after-funeral gatherings and ‘after-tears’ gatherings remain prohibited
  • night clubs will remain closed
  • the sale of alcohol for on and off-site consumption may now take place until 23:00 each evening, subject to ‘normal licence provisions’, and
  • masks remain mandatory in public places (it is still a criminal offence not to comply with this requirement).
• On 30 September, the Department of Home Affairs issued a media statement clarifying the latest amendments to a March 2020 ministerial directive. Among other things:
  • it extends the validity period of ‘asylum permits’, refugee status documents and certain visas that expired under lockdown
  • confirms that the validity of visitors’ visas held by people who arrived in South Africa between December 2019 and 14 March 2021, and are still in the country, expired on 30 September, and
  • announces that Home Affairs offices are now accepting ID applications from people with temporary ID certificates and ‘those who have lost their IDs’.

COMMUNICATIONS

• The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has:
  • called for public comment on an information memorandum outlining plans for the next phase of its high-demand radio frequency spectrum licensing process, and
  • issued a media statement providing insight into plans for licensing the wireless open access network.

• Icasa has also called for public comment on key issues central to an inquiry into the ‘use and usage’ of radio frequency bands identified for migration and spectrum assignment.

FINANCE

• The Prudential Authority has called for public comment on a discussion paper reviewing the government bond curve construction methodology and data set management framework.

Prepared by Pam Saxby