As South Africa reaches over 4 000 deaths caused by COVID-19, the country is nearing the eye of a storm and peak of infections.

Government has enforced new measures, including an immediate ban on the sale and distribution of alcohol, in response to the surge in coronavirus infections and deaths.

The South African economy has been in a recession for three quarters, with unemployment now sitting at over 30%.

The governing party launched a document on building a new inclusive economy on Friday as part of its efforts to restore the country’s dwindling economy which has been hit hard by the impact of the pandemic.

The ANC’s economic transformation committee has released a document on building a new inclusive economy. This follows a similar publication issued by Business for South Africa on Friday, proposing an economic recovery plan which requires R3.4 trillion in funding over the next three years.

Property rates tariffs will be increased by 4%, while water tariffs will increase by 6.6% and electricity tariffs will go up by 6.23%.

This follows several delays which saw the Gauteng government throw the book at the city’s council threatening to place it under administration.

The city’s council was discussing its 2020-2021 budget on Thursday following an ultimatum from the provincial government to pass the budget before Friday to avoid being placed under administration.

The number of positive coronavirus cases confirmed within the sector so far suggests the spread is not easing, with 1,559 active cases at the last count, while 1,166 workers have recovered.

The municipal council has failed to convene to deal with the budget impasse twice with grave implications for the city’s over 15 million citizens.

Service delivery was also affected in these municipalities, with the Makwetu adding that cost-containment measures and recovery plans were introduced in the hope of recovering from the 'huge financial loss'.

The organisation said it would encourage treasury to implement Section 216 of the Constitution to withhold equitable share to address financial misconduct.

Deputy Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Parks Tau said that a set of systematic issues needed to be resolved in the local government sphere to ensure better performance of municipalities.

This has been attributed to departures from prescribed regulations a problem that has hogged municipal finances for some time.

However, this is also the first time that the AG’s office will exercise its new powers to act on corruption and the abuse of public finances.

This was the third consecutive decline with the economy remaining in recession.

The second-quarter results are expected to paint an even bleaker picture of the impact of the national lockdown, which forced businesses to shut down, halting economic activity for over two months.

This data does not include post lockdown data on the economy’s performance.