Have you heard of SAFT? It is an interest free loan:
“The South African Future Trust (SAFT) was set up by Nicky and Jonathan Oppenheimer as result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The aim of SAFT is to provide interest-free loans to qualifying SMMEs, exclusively for the purpose of paying a specified amount of money to their permanent employees who are at risk of losing their jobs or suffering loss of income due to COVID-19. If the loan is approved the permanent employees of the qualifying SMMEs will receive weekly payments of R750 per employee over 15 weeks (i.e. R11,250 in total per employee) and the full amount of the loan will be a function of the number of permanent employees on the SMME’s payroll. Therefore, there is no limit to the number of permanent employees that can receive this funding.
The Banks will be administering the loans on behalf of SAFT and will facilitate the signing of the loan agreement with the qualifying SMME and make payments directly to the affected permanent employees.
The loan has no minimum monthly payment requirements and no interest will be charged, it does however need to be settled in full with SAFT at the end of the term (31 December 2025). Employees carry no liability for the repayment of the loan.”
So the staff are given the money BUT the company must repay the loan. So it is a way to assist staff at the cost of the company. However, no interest will be charged and you can repay it in instalments, either monthly, periodically or in full at the end of the term.
“Please note that applications will be considered on a first come, first served basis.”
These are the links that I can find:
https://www.standardbank.co.za/southafrica/business/covid-19/south-african-future-trust
https://www.nedbank.co.za/content/nedbank/desktop/gt/en/business/covid-19-relief1/SAFT1.html
https://www.fnb.co.za/realhelp/for-my-business/fnb-and-covid19.html
https://www.absa.co.za/personal/covid-19/south-african-future-trust/
This is entirely up to you if you want to go this route. We have tried it and we have been successful. We now just await payment / s. We suspect that they will pay R750 per employee, per week for 15 weeks. So if a staff member earns R10 000, then you can pay them R7 000 and the bank will give them the other R3 000 (in an average month). So you in essence are given a cash flow break of R3 000 pm for up to 15 weeks. Imagine if you have 10 staff – then the relief will be as much as R750 x 15 weeks x 10 staff = R112 500. This will help almost anyone’s cashflow
I do not profess to be a fundi on this, so read all the articles and call the call centres if you have questions. However, we have been successful.
We can do the application for you, but you will be liable for the time we spend. Plus, you must be tax compliant to qualify. (We estimate that we will need three hours to assist). If however, you have tax matters that need attention and we are engaged to do this, then you will have to pay us to do this in addition.
If you interested then email your representative at PATC. T’s and C’s apply.