The Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEDEAT) has developed and operates an economic information gathering process that provides weekly “at the coal-face” economic situational analysis of the economic impact of the Covid 19 outbreak.
Through this process, and working with the EC Business Chambers, the DEDEAT receives reports from more than 400 businesses in the Province.
The available information reveals that more businesses are losing revenue due to the pandemic and lockdown regulations with thousands of jobs likely to be lost. It is important to note that this data is based on what is submitted to the workstream and is not “auditable’’.
As part of efforts to respond to this, the Department has put in place and is operating various instruments including the Manufacturing Support Centre (MSC) portal and EC Jobs Stimulus Fund.
So far, 44 companies have registered in the MSC portal with a combined total of more than 1500 jobs at risk.
The Job Stimulus Fund is operated by the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC), an entity of DEDEAT. (Download Job Stimulus Fund form)
DEDEAT is also collaborating with the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) to facilitate SMME access to the relief funds.
As a result of this, 54 officials from the Provincial and Local Economic Development Programmes have been trained by DSBD and are Agents who are now part of the DSBD National Call Centre.
Working with Local government, DEDEAT has also developed a reporting tool for its Regional Offices to capture information on informal businesses including the issuing of permits.
A total of 4163 permits have been issued across all six districts.
In line with the guidelines released by the Ministry of DSBD on spaza shops and general dealers, the department will assist the Municipalities with CIPC registrations and facilitate support for Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and SARS documentation.
Under the Eastern Cape Disaster Management Committee for the COVID-19 Response process, 8 work streams have been constituted, including the Economic Tourism and Business (ETB) Workstream led by DEDEAT.
For media inquiries:
Ncedo Lisani
Communications and Marketing Manager
EC Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Mobile: 0664850501
