President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his State of the Nation Address last night, laying out 4 pillars that government will be focusing on this year: defeating the Covid-19 pandemic; accelerating economic recovery; creating jobs and inclusive economic growth; as well as fighting corruption and strengthening the state.

The scaled-down State of the Nation Address was the first to be delivered with only 50 parliamentarians and members of the judiciary in the chamber, with everyone else connected online.

There were a few new announcements, which are summarised below:

• The Special Covid-19 Grant of R350 has been extended by a further three months.
• The Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Covid-19  the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) benefit has been extended to 15 March 2021 -only for those sectors that have not been able to operate.
• The first batch, of 80 000 J&J vaccine doses, will arrive in the country next week – 500 000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines which will land in the next four weeks. The country has secured 9 million doses of this vaccine to date.
• Pfizer has committed 20 million vaccine doses commencing with deliveries at the end of the first quarter.
• Ramaphosa will be appointing the members of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, which will oversee the establishment of an independent anti-corruption body that reports to Parliament.
• The licensing requirements for new embedded generation projects will be eased, with the potential to unlock up to 5,000 megawatts of additional capacity. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy will be announcing the successful bids for 2,000 megawatts of emergency power. In the coming weeks a request for proposals for 2,600 megawatts from wind and solar energy as part of Bid Window 5 will be issued, followed by another bid window in August 2021.

For the full speech visit here: http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/speeches/state-nation-address-president-cyril-ramaphosa

#SONA2021 #GrowSouthAfrica 🇿🇦 https://t.co/g6N7nI4sZn

— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) February 11, 2021

"We have now developed an infrastructure investment project pipeline worth R340 billion in network industries such as energy, water, transport and telecommunications." #SONA2021 #MySONA #GrowSouthAfrica pic.twitter.com/T4pZhI2cjI

— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) February 11, 2021

"As international travel starts to recover in the wake of COVID-19, we will undertake a full roll-out of eVisas to visitors from China, India, Nigeria, Kenya and 10 other countries." #SONA2021 #MySONA #GrowSouthAfrica pic.twitter.com/j8E4ZQIedY

— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) February 11, 2021