On 10 August 2021, the South African Minister of Employment and
Labour gazetted Regulations which established a temporary financial
relief scheme for workers who have lost income due to the partial
or full closure of workplaces destroyed, damaged, looted or
otherwise affected by the recent unrest.
The scheme is a welcome intervention in circumstances where
workers are unable to work due to the looting or riots and are not
entitled to remuneration. Similarly to hard lockdown where
non-essential workers are prohibited from tendering their services,
there is no obligation on the employer to pay workers who are
unable to tender their services and the employer is unable to
accept their services due to supervening possibility of
performance, ie, due to the unrest.
