WC cabinet receives presentations on budget and jobs

WESTERN CAPE NEWS - According to a media statement by premier Alan Winde earlier today, the Western Cape cabinet met to discuss the further opening of the economy.

According to the statement:

As I outlined in my weekly digicon yesterday, the Western Cape cabinet met today to discuss our position on the further opening of the economy.

This position will be presented to President Cyril Ramaphosa when he holds his consultations with provinces regarding a possible move to a lower alert level.

During today’s cabinet meeting, we received presentations from various departments on the provincial budget processes as well as on plans to stimulate the economy to create jobs, as part of our economic recovery plan.

We will be considering these inputs, together with the available health data, over the next few days. We will continue the discussion in our cabinet meeting on Tuesday, where a formal position on the further opening of the economy will be adopted.

The Western Cape Government is committed to using a data-driven and evidence-based approach to decision making and this decision will be no different. The GDP data released this week was a clear indicator that we need to act swiftly and decisively to set our economy on the right track. Failure to do so will result in even more job losses, which will have a major impact on the lives and well-being of the people of this province.

At the same time, we must be cognizant of the fact that COVID-19 will be part of our lives for many more months to come and we must take decisions with this in mind.

Any position we adopt must therefore ensure that we move forward and that we do it safely.

Over the past few months, the Western Cape has made significant progress in defeating COVID-19, due to the efforts of all of our citizens, the hard work of every single one of our healthcare workers and frontline staff, and focused, data-driven interventions by the Western Cape Government.

As we move forward, our response must be accompanied by the same dedication and data-led approach and we will need the continued, active participation of our residents. We therefore call on everyone to stay safe by wearing their masks, and practicing hygiene and social distancing, but our call is now also accompanied by a call to go out and to support local businesses. These are the building blocks that will not only help us to manage COVID-19 in the province, but start to rebuild our economy one job at a time, allow us to access medical care which has been delayed due to COVID, protect our children with all of the vaccines they need, and get them back into school. Let's get back to work, and let's make sure we do it safely.

Update on the coronavirus
As of 13:00 on 11 September, the Western Cape has 2850 active cases of COVID-19, with a total of 107 353 confirmed cases and 100 466 recoveries.

Garden Route district:

Bitou - 604 cases, 555 recoveries
Knysna - 1427 cases, 1314 recoveries
George - 3442 cases, 3189 recoveries
Hessequa - 294 cases, 268 recoveries
Kannaland - 110 cases, 108 recoveries
Mossel Bay - 2271 cases, 2123 recoveries
Oudtshoorn - 1313 cases, 1090 recoveries

Data note: It is not always possible to check and verify that the address data supplied for each new recorded case is correct, within the time frames required to provide regular and timely updates. This means that in some instances, cases could be allocated to the wrong sub-districts. We are working with the sub-districts to clean and verify the data and where errors are picked up locally, cases will be re-allocated to the correct areas.

The Western Cape has recorded an additional 17 deaths, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the province to 4037. We send our condolences to their family and friends at this time.

All data can be accessed on the Western Cape data dashboard which is updated daily after 13:00.