More than R900-million has been allocated by National Treasury to the South African Police Service and the National Defence Force to bring about peace and stability after the recent protests and looting in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni says the assistance comes in response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent calls to better equip the country’s law-enforcement agencies to respond to protests.

Mboweni says R250-million has been allocated to SAPS, while R700-million has been allocated to the SANDF.

He says damages to buildings and infrastructure amounted to billions of Rand.

Read the Minister’s full statement here.

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National Treasury is now in talks with several role-players to, in future, allow South Africans to access a portion of their retirement savings, to help them weather the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Minister Tito Mboweni, the matter has already been discussed at several levels of government.

He says the initiative would allow workers, whose cash-flows have been negatively affected by the lockdown, have access to much-needed funds, to pay expenses that have been piling up.

The amendment to the Pension Funds Act will enable pension fund members to leverage this asset to their own benefit.

Read the Minister’s statement here.

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Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu says her Department is engaged in talks with Government and National Treasury to see if the special Covid-19 grants, allocated to needy South Africans over the past year, could be extended.

The Minister delivered her 2021/2022 Budget Vote in Parliament this week.

She spoke to ENCA and said the R350 covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant, in particular, reached millions of people across the country.

She says this grant came to an end in April.

Zulu says many South Africans desperately need the grants to survive.

Read more here.

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