AS the country awaited President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce more stringent measures to deal with spread of Coronavirus, the EFF has proposed that banks should give people repayment break for at least four months.
The EFF further proposes that the government should pay all workers who earn below R15000 a ounce off grant of R3500 for food and hygiene essentials.
In wide ranging 13 point plan, which sounds as though the country is on lock down, the EFF make bold proposals to network service providers, government, banks, land lords and municipalities.
“The government must publish price guidelines of the following products: bread, milk, flour and maize meal, vegetables and fruits, soap and sanitizers.
“All government departments, state owned companies and municipalities must pay outstanding verifiable invoices where work was done and completed according to the requirements within the next ten working days,” the party proposed.
It calls for strong measures to be put in place to deal decisively with corruption in this regard.
It further calls in the government to give companies and individuals tax rebates and breaks during this period. Grants must be given to small and medium companies to cover salaries for workers and on condition that there will be no retrenchments.
“The South African Reserve Bank should make available a credit facility for banks with the directive that banks must lend small and medium businesses,” it said.
On performing artists affected by cancellation of shows due to the virus, the red berets proposes that a relief fund should be established to compensate such artists. This fund should be established with the help and involvement of the National Arts Council and other institutions catering for artists.
It calls for the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, National Arts Council and National Lottery not to find any new projects and use the money from cancelled shows to compensate artists.
To network service providers, it proposes a daily free 200MB for anyone with a Rica card, free 15 minutes talk, free network to network calls and 15 minutes to other networks.
On the tenants, the EFF said all rental payments must be suspended for four months and government must declare all evictions illegal whether on occupied land or rented property.
“Property owners must receive a subsidy to mitigate the impact of defaulting on rental payments,” it said.