The Covid-19 pandemic has brought disruptions and devastating impact on the South African economy with several businesses reeling from the effects of this pandemic. The South African and global economy has taken an unexpected turn and this has had dire consequences on businesses.
On 27 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country will enter into a national lockdown, which aimed to flatten the curve of the Coronavirus. The national lockdown meant that businesses had to close office, calling for employees and consumers to stay at home. The initial lockdown was extended and the country has been in lockdown for more than a third of this year.
With most businesses’ doors shut and all operations halted, business profits and cash flows dropped at a high speed. Many businesses went into financial distress and thousands of jobs were lost. The Government introduced a Business Turnaround and Recovery strategy to provide businesses in distress with assistance to find a way to navigate through these unprecedented times of the pandemic.
On Wednesday, 22 July 2020, The Deputy Minister of the Department of Employment and Labour, Ms. Boitumelo Moloi, through a virtual press briefing, announced that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will provide R104 million to Productivity SA to support some 6 000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to improve productivity to preserve and create jobs.
Productivity SA is an entity of the Department of Employment and Labour and the Business Turnaround and Recovery Programme is aimed at preventing job losses and implement turn-around strategies to support companies facing operational difficulties which may result in the companies contemplating retrenchments (Source: Department of Employment and Labour).
How can we help your organisation?<!>
The future is not a straight line from the past. It involves significant and substantial change and needs to do so if we are to respond to the significant shifts occurring in the business environment.
During these uncertain times, Enterprises University of Pretoria (Pty) Ltd (Enterprises UP) understands the need for businesses to stay agile. To this, we offer solutions for businesses that need to restructure, plan for the future, downsize, and avoid retrenchments or upskill through learning, unlearning and relearning.
Contact us for more information on the Business Management and Entrepreneurship short courses. You can also stay in touch for information on our wide range of training programmes and our collaborative services.
