MEC of Finance and Economic Opportunities in the Western Cape David Maynier has said the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) TERS benefits need to be extended to the Garden Route.

The Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) was established to assist employees who lost income due to Covid-19 and associated regulations that limited economic activity during lockdown.

On Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the Garden Route a hot spot as South Africa enters the second wave of Covid-19. One of the added restrictions applied to the area is the closure of all beaches from December 16 until January 3.

In a statement released on Thursday, Maynier said the closure of beaches for the festive seasons would deal a devastating blow to the economy of the district, which relies heavily on tourism for its survival.

He said the local government was opposed to closure of any of the province’s beaches and said this was being challenged with the national government.

Maynier said the local government had been focused on curbing the spread of Covid-19 and keeping the economy as open as possible.

“The Garden Route District had a GDP of R62.2 billion (US$4.2 billion) in 2019 and contributed 9.04% to the Western Cape province GDP and 1.22% to the GDP of South Africa in 2019.

“There are an estimated 10,000 businesses in the Garden Route. All these businesses will be negatively impacted by the additional restrictions including the curfew and the full beach closure,” Maynier said.

He said the festive season was a critical moment for economic recovery, particularly in the tourism and hospitality sectors, which would now not be possible within the district.

“As with previous lockdown restrictions, where businesses are compromised by additional restrictions, we need to ensure that they are given necessary support from the government.”

Maynier said he had written to the national Minister of Tourism Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane to ask the national government to extend the UIF/TERS benefits to the businesses and employees in the Garden Route and other hot spots for the duration of the additional restrictions.

He said he also requested the national minister’s department to consider additional relief measures that can be provided to the affected businesses.