Tag: COVID-19

When there is a crisis, there are those that will try and take advantage. Unfortunately, cybercriminals aren't guided by the same moral compass as the rest of humanity. In fact, they are using the current COVID-19 pandemic to try and break through defences by using scare tactics and a variety of malicious campaigns including email spam, BEC, malware, ransomware, malicious domains, and sending seemingly helpful emails to spread infected files.

The Compensation Commissioner published, by way of Government Gazette, a ‘Notice on Compensation for Occupational-Acquired Novel Corona Virus Diseases (COVID-19). The Notice came into effect on 23 March 2020. In order to qualify, the occupational acquired COVID-19 disease (OACD) must have been contracted by an employee in the course of his or her employment.

Further to the fiscal package as outlined by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his speech on the Escalation of Measures to Combat COVID-19, the Minister of Finance has announced on 29 March 2020 certain exceptional tax measures to be implemented.

Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of fiscal relief for certain taxpayers, in light of other measures imposed to combat the COVID-19 crisis, National Treasury published explanatory notes on 29 March 2020, which outline exactly how the tax system will be used to ease financial distress during these times.  

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has taken several precautionary measures in response to the risk of infection from COVID-19 which are aligned with and are in support of the initiatives implemented by the Department of Health.

Findings from the pre-lockdown COVID-19 National Small Business Survey shows deep economic challenges for small businesses during these unpredictable times. The survey canvassed thousands of small businesses throughout the country, providing valuable insight into the devastating effects as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the sector, these effects deemed to worsen significantly over the coming weeks. 

Patented technology holds the key to many solutions that assist medical professionals daily in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. In this context, we look at several issues relating to enforcement of patents in the face of public health emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the final lockdown regulations were only circulated late afternoon on 25 March 2020, and the registration of companies for essential services was reported to commence on 26 March 2020, the potential for perceived non-compliance with the lockdown regulations does exist as companies may not have sufficient time to comply.

Moody’s finally dropped the sword on South Africa on Friday evening, following in the steps of fellow ratings agencies S&P and Fitch in downgrading the country’s sovereign credit rating to sub-investment grade or 'junk status'. And the COVID-19 crisis and current lockdown mean that even before factoring in the impact of Moody’s decision, the economic outlook for SA in 2020 is harrowing.

This may be the better of the two evils. It was always a toss between two very difficult decisions: either a ‘partial lockdown’ or a ‘complete lockdown’. It turned out to be a three-week lockdown. It cannot be expected of government to make perfect decisions.