National Treasury has published its updated ‘Operation Vulindlela’ plan, detailing the government’s strategy to boost the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic.

First announced by president Cyril Ramaphosa in parliament in October 2020, Operation Vulindlela is a joint initiative of the Presidency and National Treasury.

It is a government-wide approach through which ministers, departments and entities implement structural reforms – and a Vulindlela unit in the Presidency and National Treasury monitors progress and actively supports implementation.

Its aim is to fast-track the implementation of high-impact reforms, addressing obstacles or delays to ensure execution on policy commitments.

“The implementation of structural reforms is crucial to sustain our economic recovery and to address the underlying causes of low economic growth and high unemployment,” the document states.

“Many of these reforms have been delayed for a number of reasons, but their urgency is increased by the need to support a swift economic recovery.”

Dedicated capacity for Operation Vulindlela has been created in the Project Management Office (PMO) in The Presidency as well as in National Treasury.

The Vulindlela unit reports directly to the president as well as to the Department of Finance, and provides updates to Cabinet and the National Economic Recovery Council on a regular basis.

The plan indicates that Operation Vulindlela supports the implementation of reforms in three ways:

• Monitoring and reporting on progress to identify challenges, sustain momentum and ensure accountability;
• Facilitating technical support to enable the implementation of reforms;
• Providing recommendations to the President and Cabinet where a decision or agreement is required.

Some of the key reforms outlined in the report are detailed below.

Electricity 

Eskom faces an immediate electricity supply shortage of between 2,000 MW and 3,000 MW according to the IRP 2019, although the actual shortage may be as high as 5,000 MW given a reduced Energy Availability Factor (EAF).

Operation Vulindlela is working with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to establish additional generation capacity as quickly as possible to reduce the risk of load shedding and enable economic growth.

The procurement of 2,000 MW of emergency generation capacity will be followed by the implementation of two further bid windows of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

In the short term, the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects will be raised to enable new private investment in generation capacity.

Finally, following amendments to the Electricity Regulations on New Generation Capacity in October 2020, steps will be taken to facilitate the procurement of power by municipalities from independent power producers.

Eskom is also undertaking an intensive maintenance programme on its coal-fired plants to improve their performance, with the current high levels of maintenance expected to have a positive impact on load shedding during the latter half of 2021.

Operation Vulindlela is working with a range of government departments to put in place a comprehensive support programme for the turnaround of municipal electricity distribution businesses, starting in the metros.

Communications 

Icasa is preparing to auction high demand spectrum in the 700Mhz, 800Mhz and 2.6Ghz frequency ranges.

These bands are known as the “digital dividend” as they allow signals to travel over a longer distance, resulting in fewer transmission towers and base stations being required.

The auction of spectrum is likely to reduce the cost of mobile broadband and improve network quality while raising revenue for the state.

While this was originally scheduled to take place by the end of March 2021, this process has been delayed due to a legal battle between Telkom and Icasa.

The migration from analogue to digital signal is necessary to free up additional spectrum for mobile telecommunications. At present, the analogue television signal occupies much of the highly valuable 700MHz and 800MHz frequency bands.

The switch-off of analogue transmission towers will begin in March 2021 and continue over a period of twelve months.

Low-income households will be provided with a set-top box or a voucher to subsidise its purchase to ensure that they do not lose access to digital broadcasts.

Operation Vulindlela is also working with municipalities and provinces to streamline the approval of wayleaves and expand the delivery of broadband and fibre infrastructure to low-income neighbourhoods.

Transport 

Operation Vulindlela is working with the Departments of Transport and Public Enterprises as well as Transnet to ensure that corporatisation of the National Ports Authority is implemented in a manner that protects Transnet’s financial position and operational performance.

Reducing costs and improving the efficiency of South Africa’s ports is seen as crucial to the competitiveness of our exports and the overall functioning of the economy.

Operation Vulindlela is also working with the Department of Public Enterprises and Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) to implement the commercial separation of operations and rail infrastructure, which will enable third-party access to the freight rail network and the accurate costing of slots for third-party operators.

In addition, TFR will invest together with the private sector to ensure the viability of branch lines, and is developing enabling policies and access regimes for branch line operators to operate on TFR lines.

A draft White Paper on National Rail Policy comprehensively further sets out the government’s remedial interventions to achieve a ‘rail renaissance’ in the country, to make rail a competitive mode of freight and commuter transport.

 

Visas

South Africa’s approach to critical skills and general work visas should be designed to attract the skills that are needed for the economy to grow, and to compete for these skills in a globally competitive market.

In addition to the publication of a revised critical skills list, which was released for public comment in February 2021, Operation Vulindlela is supporting a comprehensive review of the framework and processes for issuing work permits.

An e-Visa system will also be fully implemented in 2021 following its pilot in 2020.

Operation Vulindlela is working with the Department of Home Affairs to expand visa waivers and to explore the feasibility of introducing a visa recognition programme, which would allow travellers with a valid visa from other recognised countries to enter South Africa.

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 As of the 2019/20 financial year, the Refugee Appeal Authority of  SA says the backlog stood at more than 153 000.

The new deal with the **United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will see around R147 million given to RAASA and technical support to eliminate this backlog.

The number of people now who must be cleared via this backlog is 163 000.

The Department of Home Affairs has signed an agreement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR ) to eliminate delays and a backlog in decisions for asylum seekers.

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said: "I am happy that the UNHCR is partnering with the government and people of South Africa in eliminating the backlog in the asylum seeker system.

"The start of this backlog coincided with the year 2008 when there was a global financial crisis. Up until then, the department was able to clear asylum applications which it was receiving each year from 1998, the year in which the Refugee Act of South Africa was enacted."

As of the 2019/20 financial year, the Refugee Appeal Authority of SA (RAASA), an independent statutory administrative tribunal tasked with ensuring that appeal cases are dealt with efficiently, said the backlog stood at more than 153 000. The Auditor-General said, if nothing changed, it would take 68 years to clear the backlog, without taking new cases.

"The partnership we are launching brings in financial and technical support to help RAASA eliminate the backlog and establish a robust asylum appeals management programme going into the future. Over the next four years, the UNHCR will make available US$9.6 million or around R147 million to RAASA and technical support to eliminate this backlog,” Motsoaledi said.

Motsoaledi said the agreement would see the UNHCR pay for 36 new members of Raasa, including their training and equipment. The number of people now who must be cleared via this backlogs is 163 000.

Currently in Cape Town, thousands of refugees are displaced after they fled their homes due to xenophobia fears. They have been relocated to two temporary sites - one in Bellville Paint City and the others at Wingfield Military site in Goodwood.

Parliament's home affairs portfolio committee has since intervened to either repatriate people back to their home countries or to reintegrate the refugees back into their communities.

The committee had set March 15 as the deadline for the UNHCR, the City and the Department of Home Affairs together to come up with a plan for the former Greenmarket Square refugees.

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The Department of Home Affairs will be offering birth registration services this Human Rights Day weekend at health facilities nationwide.

The registration weekend is held to assist parents to register their children within 30 days of birth as is required by the law.

This is the second weekend that the Department of Home Affairs is celebrating the Human Rights Month by extending services which can help parents and their children to access key government and other services.

This year’s Human Rights Day will be commemorated this Sunday under the theme: “The year of Charlotte Maxeke: promoting human rights in the Age of COVID-19”.

By registering births immediately or within the first 30 days of such births, parents contribute in promoting their children’s human rights. Birth registration marks the beginning of the fulfilment of the constitutional right to citizenship and protects the child’s right to a name and a nationality at birth. Failure to register the child is tantamount to denial of the child’s right to citizenship.

During the first weekend registration drive on 13 March 2021, there were 2 060 births registered.

Home Affairs officials will be at offices at health facilities from 08:00 until 15:00 daily, on 20 to 22 March 2021.

We urge everyone who comes to register their child to observe social distancing, sanitise their hands regularly and to wear their masks properly, covering their noses and mouths.

Nobody will be assisted if they are not wearing their masks properly.

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• Germany, Italy, and other countries in Europe enforced new lockdown measures as COVID-19 cases rise.
• Infectious disease expert Lothar Wieler said the third COVID-19 wave in Germany had "already begun."
• Much of Europe has lagged behind the US and the UK in rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine.

Many nations in Europe are entering into new nationwide lockdowns as COVID-19 cases rise.MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images

Italy, the first country to enter into a nationwide lockdown in Europe back in March 2020, imposed new restrictions on March 15, 2021, to slow the third wave.

Italy's seven-day average of new cases has increased steadily in March. The country is reporting more than 22,000 average cases per seven days, and 360 average deaths per seven days.

France resisted pressure to impose another lockdown as of March 17. Emergency resuscitation units in France are at the highest capacity since November.

France's leading doctors urged President Emmanuel Macron to impose a lockdown, and said failing to do so would cost lives.

Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, told reporters the third COVID-19 wave in Germany had "already begun" in early March.

Dirk Brockmann, an epidemiologist at the Robert Koch Institute, said COVID-19 cases had risen "exponentially" due to easing restrictions too soon and the spread of transmissible variants.

Germany extended its coronavirus shutdown until March 28.

Doctors criticised the country's slow vaccine rollout: Germany vaccinated fewer than 10% of its population as of mid-March.

Hungary, which has had a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and online-only high school classes since November, imposed new restrictions in early March. The country now requires businesses to close doors for two weeks, allowing only grocery stores and pharmacies to stay open.

One thousand supporters of Hungary's far-right party, Mi Hazank Mozgalom, held a demonstration demanding an end to the restrictions. The country's daily new COVID-19 case count is at an all-time high.

Poland announced a three-week partial lockdown, closing shops, hotels, and theaters starting March 20. The country reported 25,052 new COVID-19 cases this week, the highest toll in 2021.

The Czech Republic deployed police officers and soldiers to enforce lockdown measures in early March that aim to get citizens to stay home.

Much of Europe has lagged behind the US and the UK in rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine due to supply shortages.

Many European countries - including Germany and Italy - paused the use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine as investigators look into reports of blood clots in a handful of recipients. The World Health Organizations urged countries to continue using AstraZeneca's vaccine, and said blood clots are one of the most common cardiovascular conditions globally.

AstraZeneca said their vaccine offers less protection against mild disease caused by the COVID-19 variant first discovered in South Africa, but offers the same efficacy against two other major variants.

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With major industry, excellent job prospects and sound investment opportunities, the states of Florida and Texas are currently the most popular destinations where South Africans applying for residency and then citizenship via the USA’s Immigrant Investor EB-5 Programme, says Dr Andrew Golding, chief executive of the Pam Golding Property group.

Golding said that the programme, which offers the opportunity to invest in the USA and become a resident, remains the quickest and simplest route to gain lawful and legitimate access to the US for applicants and their immediate family to live, study and work there.

“By investing $900,000 (R13.2 million) in a US Government approved development in a designated Targeted Employment Area one is guaranteed Green Card status, while your capital is protected in an active investment in the US – with full return of funds after the end of the project, and you are eligible for a US passport after five years.

“It would appear that the lockdown experienced due to Covid-19 has given family units and individuals time to reconsider their career paths in conjunction with immigration options and as a result, we’ve noticed an increased demand from millennials who are looking at immigration coupled with business and career advancement, with the US being an obvious choice for many.”

Chris Immelman, who heads up Pam Golding International, said the applicants applying for the EB-5 investor programme are a combination of high net-worth individuals, as well as families who are willing to assist their children in looking at immigration options.

While there are also numerous retirees, these are followed by millennials and families emanating from Gauteng, followed by the Western Cape, he said.

“Interestingly, the impact of the pandemic in the USA has not impacted enquiries from applicants in any way – it appears the investors are more positively focused on the ability of the US economy to regain its traction and dominance.

“We continually conduct research, including on the ground research in the US, to find the most suitable developments to invest in, and then present these fully vetted investment projects to the South African market.”

Popular because of simplicity 

Stuart Ferguson, chief executive of immigration specialists American Dream, said that the EB-5 programme is popular because of its streamlined application process.

“We are also seeing a faster adjudication process, with our current processing timeframe dropping from approximately 20 to 13 months, and with South Africans enjoying the advantage of visa availability and priority adjudication,” he said.

“The EB-5 Investor Visa gives you and your family, including dependent children under the age of 21, the right to live, work, study or build a business anywhere in the United States, and, after a five-year period, you and your family then have the right to become US citizens.

“A further benefit is that once you are a US passport holder, you have the benefit of visa-free travel to approximately 160 countries.”

For families with school-going children, Ferguson said that this programme allows children access to leading top-ranking schools, which is coupled with the high standard of tertiary education in the US.

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