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Sun International made the decision to temporarily close its hotels and resorts, including Sun City Resort and Wild Coast Sun.
The president also stressed the importance of keeping the economy open after months of stifling movement restrictions.
He urged citizens not to drop their guard and continue adhering to the health rules, such as wearing face masks and respecting curfew times.
South Africa has recorded just over 800,000 coronavirus infections - more than a third of the cases reported across the African continent - and over 20,000 deaths.
AFP
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica is to make a decision within the next 72 hours on whether it will introduce travel restrictions on United Kingdom flights coming into the island as an aggressive new COVID-19 strain that is 70 per cent more contagious has...
Following is the third in a series of excerpts from the document titled 'Resilience: COVID-19 Ministry of Tourism health and safety protocols for the tourism industry 2020' dealing with the responsibility of hotels for the well-being of their employees:
Under the general protocols, hotels are required to:
• Provide transportation for employees from central points in the community to the work site and back where feasible.
• Ensure all employees are healthy upon their return to work through a health questionnaire similar to the questionnaire administered to potential tourists or other mechanisms as appropriate.
• Check informally on the health of employees on a regular basis, every 4-6 weeks, and if they are showing symptoms or have other risk factors, testing may be appropriate.
• Take the temperature of each employee upon arrival for their shift.
• Require employees to wear face masks throughout their work shift and in interaction with patrons.
South Africa's police minister said on Wednesday foreign nationals from Europe are defying the country's lockdown measures by going to the beach in Western Cape.
However, there have been several measures that have been implemented by the Government of Uganda to prevent the spread of Covid-19, leading to a shutdown of many of the economic activities in both domestic and international trade, such as closure of the international airport except for cargo, mandatory closure of non-essential businesses, compulsory stay at home of non-essential workers, among others.
The government has already announced certain tax relief measures such as extension of filing return dates.
However, a crisis like this calls for bigger tax measures that can form part of the larger economic impetus, which government may provide to bring the economy back on track.
Further owing to the prevailing economic uncertainty, companies are likely to find it extremely difficult to estimate their tax liability in the first two quarters of FY 2020/2021 hence government should waive the 20 per cent under provisioning penalty during FY 2020/21.
Also, international cooperation may be sought to analyse the best tax policy measures to update our policies to counter the economic crisis precipitated by Covid-19.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has unveiled a massive stimulus programme to jump-start the country's economy by pumping Sh53.7 billion into various sectors.
He said the move is aimed at mitigating the effects of COVID-19 which has slowed the economy since March, rendering thousands jobless after many business were closed down.
In an address to the nation from State House on Saturday, the president said he is keen to see the revival of the tourism industry and has set aside Sh2 billion to support renovation of facilities and the restructuring of business operations in the tourism industry.
Hotels in tourism destinations across the country remain closed since March when the country confirmed its first case of coronavirus.
\"And to mitigate the impact of deforestation and climate change, and to enhance the provision of water facilities, my administration will rehabilitate wells, water pans and underground tanks in the Arid and Semi-Arid areas,\" he said, setting aside Sh 850 million.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet with traditional leaders on Saturday to discuss the national response to the Covid-19 pandemic and matters related to the lockdown.
This will be the second consultative meeting with traditional leaders on the national response to the pandemic, with the first one having been led by Deputy President David Mabuza, Presidency spokesperson Khusela Diko said.
Diko said Ramaphosa had recently held consultative meetings with the National Economic Development and Labour Council, the President's Coordinating Council, leaders of political parties represented in Parliament, leaders of interfaith communities, and the tourism industry.
\"The engagement with traditional leaders is part of a series of consultations the president has held with leaders across various sectors of society since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, to ensure that the national effort to combat the crisis is inclusive and enjoys the support of all stakeholder groups.\"
News24 was reliably told that party leaders in the virtual meeting, which kicked off at 07:00 on Wednesday, were given ample time to share their views on how the country should be navigating the coronavirus pandemic and the related lockdown to curb the spread of infection.
MONTEGO BAY, St James - The Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) yesterday described the passing of hotelier and chairman of Sandals Resorts International Gordon 'Butch' Stewart as an incredible loss to Jamaica and the Caribbean, as the business community across the western region expressed sadness at his death.
Level 1 is here, but so is Bheki Cele. The Police Minister has some bad news for alcohol enthusiasts ahead of Heritage Day on 24 September.
Gordon “Butch” Stewart has praised Jamaica's tourism employees for their “extraordinary resilience” in facing the COVID-19 pandemic, and wished them an even better future, as the industry slowly begins to reopen.
He reserved the highest praise for his Sandals staff and management, describing them as “the best in this hemisphere” and noting they are the reason the hotel chain had won the prestigious World Travel Industry award for “World's Best” for 24 consecutive years.
Stewart, who is also chairman of the Jamaica Observer, said he hoped never to see anything like the COVID-19 pandemic again, or the unprecedented havoc and displacement it visited upon every human being, organisation and government.
Sandals was the only resort chain in the Caribbean which paid its staff 40 per cent of their salaries, and their health insurance, opting not to do massive layoffs, despite the total loss of income and the cost to maintain hotels in readiness for reopening.
He credited the operations and marketing team led by his son, Deputy Chairman Adam Stewart, for getting the hotels ready for resumption, saying “everybody is back in full force”.
Nairobi — Kenya's COVID-19 infections rose to 1,192 Saturday after President Uhuru Kenyatta announced 31 new cases.
\"Coronavirus pandemic has and will continue to undermine our efforts to revitalize our economy for the unforeseeable future, indeed it is true as I have said before that the rate of infections may indeed surge upwards or fall if we fail to comply with the protocols issued by the Ministry of Health,\" he said in an address from State House, when he announced a massive Sh53.7 billion stimulus package to revive the economy.
On Saturday, President Kenyatta said the new stimulus package is aimed at mitigating the effects of COVID-19 which has slowed the economy since March, rendering thousands jobless after many business were closed down.
During the presidential address, Kenyatta also revealed that the government is spending Sh250 million every week to support the vulnerable groups in the country who have been worst hit by the impact of coronavirus.
A young Rwadan is offering tourists the chance to visit his country via virtual tourism amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Patrick Karangwa is the founder of Kigali 360, a company that creates virtual tours of some of Rwanda's most impressive sights.
\"I realised that Rwanda as a country and in general also Africa were under-represented on Google Maps, on digital maps, this is where the idea came from, I realised that this technology we could do it our self and it was affordable\"
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the tourism industry has collapsed across all African countries.
Most African tourism organizations have come up with the concept of providing the continent's digital experiences to casual travelers during the pandemic. Virtual tourism is on the rise. However, Patrick believes traditional tourism will pick up.
\"This will never replace traditional tourism because nothing really will replace the fact that people can be at places, at locations and see the things with their own eyes. So this is more a different layer of information,\" he said.
Last year, tourism brought more than $490 million in revenues to Rwanda, according to the Rwanda Development Board.
This year the pandemic has cost Rwanda $45 million, due to dwindling tourist numbers and after 45 international meetings scheduled to be held in Kingali were postponed or cancelled.
Press Release - Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, hosted a webinar to mark International Women Day on 08 March 2021. International Women's Day is commemorated globally to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. This year, the celebrations were themed - \"Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.\"
The resumption of the sale of alcohol has seen Gauteng recording 18 deaths since June 1.
These statistics were presented by Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko at the weekly Gauteng Provincial Command Council update on Friday.
She added that about 124 people were admitted to various hospitals after sustaining injuries in brawls related to alcohol consumption.
Mazibuko said during Levels 4 and 5, they were dealing with home brewed alcohol sales and consumption, but during Level 3 they have to deal with legal alcohol.
Police are not going to negotiate with you, they are going to take you for carrying alcohol between Friday and Sunday,\" said Mazibuko.
The chaotic reintroduction of international travel to SA has already managed to upset global superpowers - but could the high-risk list soon change?
Liquor is likely to be a major talking point when Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the nation on Sunday - as some businesses fear a second alcohol ban.
Young Author Creates New YouTube Talk Show During Pandemic To Help Inspire His Peers
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA, July 6, 2020 EINPresswire.com -- Who says you can’t be a kid and have your own talk show? No one does! That is why Atlanta native,
Mutuma, the managing director of herb exporter Jambofresh Kenya, has reaped the benefits of a thriving horticultural sector that has become a major driver of Kenya's export revenue.
But in recent weeks, his bounty has become a burden, as measures put in place to control the spread of the novel coronavirus led international buyers to cancel orders and brought Kenya's exports to a standstill for more than a month.
Travel restrictions around the world have crippled business for Kenya's herb farmers, who export most of their produce.
For most of the past decade, Kenya's horticultural sub-sector has enjoyed consistent growth as millions of farmers send their produce to Europe, China and the United States.
As countries start to ease themselves out of quarantine, some of Kenya's farmers have reported a trickle of international orders coming back in.
The DA's Makashule Gana said the situation in hospitals had not stabilised enough to allow for the lifting of the alcohol ban.
In a statement, Moody's said the key drivers behind the rating action were the large shock caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis will weigh significantly on economic and fiscal strength over the medium term as well as the funding conditions will become more constrained for the Government because of larger financing needs.
“The negative outlook reflects Moody's expectation that given the severity of the coronavirus shock, the Government's credit profile will continue to be exposed to downside risks related to the recovery of the tourism sector.
Given these dynamics, Moody's said it expects a loss of over 50 per cent of tourism flows in 2020 relative to 2019, which would lead to a GDP contraction of about 16 to 20 per cent.
Moody's said it believes that the recovery of the global tourism sector is exposed to potential changes to consumer behaviour following the coronavirus outbreak.
“Additionally, the Government's debt affordability will deteriorate as a consequence of higher interest payments and the loss of revenue, which will push the interest-to-revenue ratio to 22.6 per cent in 2020/21 from 13.5 per cent in 2018/19, although Moody's expects the ratio to decline somewhat in subsequent years as government revenue recovers.
President Cyril Ramaphosa gave weary and irritable South Africans something to look forward to when, on Sunday evening, he announced that the country will move to Level 3 of the lockdown on 1 June – but, as always, the devil is bound to lurk in the detail.
He has given six addresses to the nation since the state of national disaster was announced on 15 March, and where South Africans were broadly united in their support for the president and his government's swift action more than two months ago, the national mood has become increasingly frayed as the lockdown began to bite.
And tension between some scientists on the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) – a body of 51 eminent scientists advising the Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize – came to a head over the last seven days, with Professors Glenda Gray, Francois Venter and Shabir Mahdi, among others, criticising the government’s approach to scientific advice.
Ramaphosa explained the extent of the public health response and again, like in the past, reiterated the real fear that the full impact of the virus has yet to breach our defences.
A broken public health system, a depleted national fiscus, a misfiring public service and a weak economy did not give Ramaphosa the armoury with which to tackle a global pandemic of uncertain scope and impact.
The Caribbean COVID-19 Tourism Task Force is pointing to what it says is a strong link between continued diligence and adherence to public health safety protocols in the Caribbean and the pace at which the region realises a return to normalcy in a tourism industry upon which the economies of several of the countries are heavily dependent.
The article Vaccines, adherence to COVID-19 protocols key to restoration of Caribbean tourism appeared first on Stabroek News.
PHOTO | FILE
Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMES) play an important role in an economy and need support more so now.
Many times it has been observed that small businesses of various sizes are key to economic development besides creating the much needed employment world over.
The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) play an important role in the success of an economy.
Last year and not long before that, I did see and hear a lot of cries from business people particularly micro and small ones on low money circulation, low business, crackdown on substandard goods, delays on clearing of imported goods, influx of Chinese traders in Gikomba among others in Kenya.
After all a lot of employment is generated by business organisations such that in any decent economy an overwhelming majority have to be working in private enterprises whether owning them, self employed or as employees and generating taxes that support government numerous services and for building the country and economy.
[Monitor] The tourism industry must co-exist with a future that has been permanently altered, thanks to Covid-19.
After government lifted the ban on alcohol sales, the Southern African Agri Initiative's court application will not proceed as planned.
Security systems must always be adapted to reflect the changing business landscape with companies adhering to best practices.
Given how the new world of work will likely see employees spread across a number of locations, CIOs need to have oversight of the effectiveness of the IT systems in place.
Refocusing IT spend
Despite the uncertainties of what the post-lockdown business world will entail, CIOs should keep the following things in mind to help focus their spend:
Cybersecurity must be a priority;
Managing the connectivity requirements of remote users.
Fibre provides an ideal environment as it also enables employees to make calls using VoIP technology, significantly reducing mobile call expenses;
Have cloud-enabled systems that allow for remote work including collaboration tools, hosted PBX systems and virtual private networks;
Consider embracing hardware-as-a-service where the company can rent hardware based on their requirements and upgrading it as needed;
Centrally managed IT system that manages all devices and users from a singular console that also ensures asset management is done with the right policy management in place; and
Supporting home users with access to reliable power supply solutions for when load shedding resumes.
Throughout this, the CIO should keep the requirements of the business stakeholders firmly in mind to help navigate the complexities of this new environment.
