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  • 19 Apr
    2024

Economic Recovery

The Four Pillars of Government Response to Covid-19 Outbreak

The first case of Covid-19 in South Africa was recorded on the 05th of March 2020. That meant we had to come up with a response, and we said ours will have four main pillars.

  • First Pillar

    is the health response which includes public health education on personal hygiene, personal protective equipment (PPE) and social distancing. Then there is the medical infrastructure relating to preparing our hospital's high care and ICU facilities, isolation and quarantine facilities and establishing new field hospitals.

  • Second Pillar

    relates to support for the vulnerable, both economic and social. This includes providing grants, soft loans and other relief measures for distressed businesses and relief for individuals which includes social grants for the unemployed and food parcels.


  • Third Pillar

    is that of ensuring compliance with Disaster Regulations which placed restrictions on certain activities. This requires a massive coordinated effort from our emergency and law enforcement agencies.

  • Fourth Pillar

    arguably our most complex pillar has been the focus on the economy. We knew from the start that while protecting the lives of our people was the first priority we also had to protect our economy from total collapse. We also realised that we had to put in place a solid recovery plan.

In addition to the four pillars, the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government further broke down the economy recovery to 14 sectors as part of the social compact for economic recovery. The provincial compact was entered into by Government, Labor, Businesses, and Civil Society as a practical expression of a united effort towards economic recovery. In the social compact the economy was disaggregated to 14 sectors namely:

  • Agriculture and Agro-processing
  • Clothing and Textile
  • Creative industries
  • Finance and Services
  • Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), ICT and Innovation
  • Health Innovation and Manufacturing
  • Industrial Development
  • Informal Sector
  • Infrastructure Development
  • Trade and Investment
  • Manufacturing (Automotive, Paper and Pulp, etc.)
  • Mining and Mineral Beneficiation
  • Ocean Economy
  • Tourism
The social compact sets out clear priority objectives for each sector and also outlines specific commitments made by each social partner towards the attainment of those objectives. While the objectives differ from sector to sector, radical economic transformation and the development of rural and township economies cut across all sectors. “With each of these sectors we have tailor-made recovery plans. What became clear to us from the beginning was that these plans would require us working with all our social partners” Mr. Nhlakanipho Nkontwana, KZN-EDTEA Head of Department.

To view the report on the number of confirmed public servants with positive cases on Covid-19 within KwaZulu-Natal, Click Here.


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