Solidarity Fund seeks cash for rapid relief effort
The Solidarity Fund, which was established by the business sector to provide financial and logistical support for the Covid19 response, will this week embark on a new fundraising round to provide humanitarian relief to people left without food and medical supplies by the past week’s violence.
Chair of the fund and Wiphold founder Gloria Serobe told Business Day on Sunday the emphasis was to move swiftly to provide support by using a vehicle that was already established and which donors trusted.
It will not use any of the funds previously raised for Covid relief. Businesses and individuals contributed R3.7bn to the Covid-19 response via the fund.
“Government, labour and business all agree that the fund is the right vehicle through which business should respond. This relief effort requires an even quicker response than the last. We are starting with zero in the bank, so the call for support is going to be quite large,” she said.
The immediate priority was to fly food and medical supplies to affected communities and hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal. It would not be used to assist businesses damaged in the violence.
“The fund has got the capacity to respond quickly. In this situation each day matters,” Serobe said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday that the government would respond immediately with food packages for those afflicted by last week’s looting, arson and violence, as well as a package of measures.
Social partners met in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) twice last week and will meet again on Tuesday to complete work on the package.
It has been agreed that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will assist workers who are members of the fund who lose their jobs as a result of the violence with the normal UIF benefit, which is a portion of earnings for 12 months.
Spokesperson for the fund Makhosonke Buthelezi says the fund has sufficient reserves to cover this.
What is still under discussion is whether, and how, those who lose their employment, but who were not fund members — as is often the case in informal businesses — will be supported.
Business Unity SA vicepresident Martin Kingston said Nedlac was looking at both short- and longer-term responses. The immediate priority was to provide emergency relief, and the Solidarity Fund had begun mobilising for this.
“In the longer term, there is a clear question to what extent we need to revisit the economic reconstruction and recovery. We need to give the requisite assurance to investors this will be dealt with and the perpetrators held responsible,” he said.
Cosatu parliamentary officer Matthew Parks said the trade union federation had received a positive response to its proposals, including immediate food relief, UIF payments and a loan guarantee scheme for business.