Government ministers spelled out the strict new rules during a marathon briefing in Pretoria on Wednesday night.

Fisheries and forestry are two of the sectors declared exempt from the national lockdown starting at midnight on Thursday due to the coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19).

Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane said the Appropriations Bill may need amending as the government sought to manage its finances and deal with spending pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

With small, medium and micro-enterprises set to be hardest hit by the national shutdown, there was fury at the suggestion that only companies that are majority black-owned would qualify for government assistance.

Companies will have to show their businesses have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fund, kick-started by donations of R1 billion each from the Rupert and Oppenheimer families, is intended to help mobilise business and civil society to back government efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The health minister said he will be meeting with sports bodies and churches in order to inform them about the coronavirus outbreak.

South Africa is now in the containment stage of the epidemic, which has infected about 95,000 people worldwide - 80,000 of them in China.

The government was already in talks with Cosatu about its offer to help cut Eskom's R450bn debt by R250bn using state workers' pension savings.

The trade union federation was among a range of organisations and lobby groups making submissions at Parliament during public hearings on the budget.

Cosatu is already in talks with the government over its offer for state workers’ pension savings to be used to cut Eskom’s R450 billion debt by R250 billion, although a number of unions are opposed to this.

The president was asked to give an assessment of his two years as head of state during a meeting with Sanef and the parliamentary Press Gallery Association in Cape Town on Tuesday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned that the underlying weakness in South Africa's economy could be further aggravated by global economic uncertainty amid the spread of the coronavirus.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the poor growth figures released today were not pleasing, but said that the signs that the economy was struggling were evident for some time.

The labour federation, which was the first formation within the ANC and its broader movement to nominate Cyril Ramaphosa as president, berated its limited influence in government.

Treasury said that while strengthening Sars would take time, this would result in improved revenue collection in coming years.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said the tax break was one of the measures he hoped would jump-start the economy, but he had also warned that power cuts could stifle growth and that a stable electricity supply was the government’s most pressing priority.

Taxpayers will get relief to the tune of around R2 billion because tax brackets will be adjusted to just above inflation.