Western Cape Premier Alan Winde wants the curfew lifted and a date

for international travel to resume.

Premiers are meant to meet with President Ramaphosa and the NCCC to

    discuss the lockdown.

Winde also hopes to have clarity on events and sporting businesses.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and other premiers will be meeting with

President Cyril Ramaphosa and the National Coronavirus Command Council

(NCCC) to discuss the next phase of the lockdown on Tuesday.

In a video statement released on Tuesday, Winde said he would be pushing

for three main agenda items that his government felt would allow for

more economic activity in the country.

Winde said he would be asking the president to lift the curfew and give

clarity on international travel, as well.

"We need a date that international travel opens, in October, so that the

bookings can be made by international travellers who want to come into

our country for business or vacation for the next few months," he said.

"We need to make sure that we open up on our events, sporting

businesses, and churches must be able to open up more carrying

capacity," added Winde.

Winde last week also pleaded with Ramaphosa to fight the "second

pandemic" - unemployment - by opening up all sectors of the economy on

Friday.

According to a statement by the presidency, the meeting would be chaired

by Ramaphosa and was expected to focus on a report from the NCCC on the

country's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This, as Ramaphosa hinted in a meeting with the South Africa National

Editors Forum last week that South Africa could be going into Level 1

lockdown soon.

• Rich people in various countries seem to be reconsidering where they actually want to live after the coronavirus, says consultancy Henley & Partners.
• Judging by enquiries about investment migration, that is.
• South Africa is among those countries.
• But Americans are suddenly way more keen to leave their country than South Africans.

Between the beginning and the middle of 2020, the number of wealthy South Africans considering leaving the country shot up by nearly half, judging by the enquiries it received on "investment migration", say consultants Henley & Partners.

That is roughly in line with what the company recorded in other countries, including Pakistani and Bangladesh, and not too far from the growth in interest it recorded among Indian nationals.

But what might have been surprising before the arrival of the coronavirus – and the starkly different ways governments dealt with it – was the "huge spike in enquiries from Americans".

Looking at the numbers over the year up to the end of August, enquiries from citizens of the United States of America who are thinking about buying their way into another country rose by just under 167%, says Henley & Partners.

That comes after it recorded a dip in such enquiries, a decrease of 5.1%, by US nationals between the end of 2019 and early 2020.

The American growth numbers are roughly similar to those recorded in Nigeria between the first and second quarters of this year.

Countries to which rich migrants may opt to go include New Zealand, Singapore, Austria, and Montenegro.

Lockdowns have seen more wealthy people consider how – and where – they want to live, says the company.

"Many are taking stock and ensuring they are better prepared for the next pandemic or major global disruption," said Henley & Partners CEO Juerg Steffen in a statement.

www.samigration.com

The DA says Zimbabwean teachers locked out of SA due to Covid-19

 restriction should be allowed to return to SA.

According to the provincial education department, four teachers who

were locked out have since been assisted.

The department says teachers who are still outside SA's borders are

 on unpaid leave.

The DA in Limpopo is calling on Education MEC Polly Boshielo to

intervene and approach the home affairs department to help Zimbabwean

teachers return to SA.

According to the party, an education portfolio committee meeting last

week revealed that about 400 gateway subject teachers, mostly from

Zimbabwe, were unable to enter South Africa due to border restrictions.

Gateway subjects include mathematics, physical science, economics,

agricultural sciences and accounting.

"The failure of these gateway subject teachers to enter the country and

resume work will have an extremely negative effect on the preparation of

learners for their final exams and their chances to achieve good marks

for admission into institutions of higher learning.

"The impact of the failure of these teachers to resume work is further

compounded by the fact that almost half the school year has been lost

due to Covid-19," DA provincial legislature member Jacques Smalle said

on Tuesday.

According to the provincial education department, of the 379 foreign

teachers who teach maths and sciences at high schools in the province,

only 20 were locked in Zimbabwe due to the lockdown.

The Department of Home Affairs has since assisted four teachers to

return, Limpopo education spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene said.

Sixteen remain outside the country and processes are under way to ensure

they return to classes, she added.

"These educators are appointed in temporary posts due to the nature of

their citizenship. They are paid a normal educator salary through the

PERSAL system."

Meanwhile, those who remain outside of South Africa's borders are

"deemed to be on unpaid leave".

Chuene said the department stopped their salaries and substituted them.

But Smalle said the teachers should be allowed to enter the country as a

matter of urgency, given their contribution to the vital subject areas

they teach.

He added that, in the 2019 final matric exams, the province achieved

lower percentages than the national average of pupils who achieved above

30% in all 11 gateway subjects.

www.samigration.com

  * *The National Economic Development and Labour Council has agreed on

    an action plan for the country's economic recovery.

  * *President Cyril Ramaphosa met with the council on Tuesday.

  * *Details of the plan will be announced once it is finalised by Cabinet.

The National Economic Development and Labour Council has agreed to an

economic recovery plan for South Africa.

According to a statement issued by the Presidency on Tuesday, following

a meeting between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nedlac - a body

comprised of representatives of government, business, labour and

community - the details of the plan will be announced once it is

finalised by Cabinet.

The country's economy is set to contract anywhere between 7% and 13%

this year due to the damaging impact of the lockdown that was instituted

to curb the spread of Covid-19. Most recent data from Stats SA showed

that the economy contracted by 51% quarter on quarteron

an annualised basis as a result of the lockdown, which saw economic

activity grind to a halt for five weeks.

The country has had to borrow from multilateral institutions such as the

International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank and the New

Development Bank, in order to fund responses to the pandemic as well as

buoy the economy.

"The social partners' action plan is founded on significant convergence

on what needs to be done to set the economy on a new, accelerated,

inclusive and transformative growth trajectory.

"Social partners have identified priority areas for rebuilding the

economy as well as structural reforms and other programmes which will

enable sustainable and inclusive growth with an intensive focus on job

creation," read the statement from the Presidency.

Notably, Nedlac agreed on a social compact to mobilise funding to

address Eskom's financial crisis "in a sustainable manner", according to

the statement. Eskom is facing a growing debt burden which currently

stands at some R480 billion. It's been battling with operational

challenges, impacting its ability to supply power with detrimental

effects on business confidence and economic growth.

Commenting on the agreement and the commitments made by social partners

to implement the plan, the president said it "is a great achievement

that rises to the challenge of the moment".

www.samigration.com

The draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (TLAB), which is open for public comment, will introduce changes for South Africans looking to take their retirement funds abroad.

In an analysis of the proposed change, law firm ENSAfrica said that the changes primarily deal with formal emigration with the draft bill suggesting a much stricter process from 1 March 2021 onward.

“Members of preservation funds and retirement annuity funds may withdraw from such funds if they formally emigrate from South Africa for exchange control purposes and their emigration is approved by the South African Reserve Bank,” said ENSAfrica.

However, it was announced in the 2020 Budget Review that the concept of emigration for exchange control purposes will be phased out.

“As a result, the requirement of formal emigration will be removed and a new requirement for the withdrawal of lump-sum benefits from these retirement funds is proposed, effective from 1 March 2021 – namely, that the person is not a resident (i.e. for tax purposes) for an uninterrupted period of three years or longer.

“It appears that this requirement is intended to apply to three consecutive tax years, although the amendment refers simply to years.”

Changes 

Jean du Toit, head of Tax Technical at Tax Consulting SA, said that under the current rules taxpayers can withdraw their retirement funds prior to their retirement date, upon emigration for exchange control purposes.

This emigration process must be recognised by the South African Reserve Bank in a process known as ‘financial emigration’, he said.

Du Toit said that under the new bill, reference to the emigration process is substituted with a new test that requires a person to prove they have been non-resident for tax purposes for an unbroken period of at least three years.

“This new test will apply from 1 March 2021. How this must be proved other than ‘financial emigration’ remains unclear at this stage.

“Practically, after the effective date, your retirement benefits will be locked in South Africa for at least three years. The proposed amendment signals a big policy shift from a fiscal perspective, but this is one piece to a bigger puzzle that should have those who seek to emigrate on high alert.”

Based on daily interaction with employers, executives and expatriates, Du Toit said that the following groups of people should give this change careful consideration:

• Does it remain prudent for South African executives to keep taking a tax break and maximising their South African approved retirement savings?

• Where you have large retirement savings, the opportunity will soon be over to make best possible investment decisions – soon some will go towards cheaper access to finance.

• South Africans looking to leave in the next couple of years will benefit from at least expediting their process on retirement savings, being they are locked in for 3 years.

• South Africans who have already left, but who have not yet done financial emigration, should consider doing this within the next 6 months before the window closes.

• Those who have already financially emigrated, but left investments behind, should reconsider their position.

• South Africans with children or other foreign beneficiaries, should relook at their investments and to align with this new landscape