Flash Briefing: SA’s vaccine misstep, PIC pension plans and Guardrisk loses Covid-19 claims appeal

By Melani Nathan 

• As Covid-19 vaccines roll out around the world, people who live in overcrowded settings – including in prisons and informal settlements – are on the South African health ministry priority list along with essential workers in healthcare and municipalities, people over the age of 60 and individuals with diseases like HIV-Aids, tuberculosis and diabetes. The hospitality, education and tourism sectors have been flagged up for fast-tracking, as have workers in mines, security and the funeral, banking and retail industries. At the back of the queue are younger, healthier taxpayers who live in formal housing and provide the fuel for the economy. Pregnant women – because of the unknown risks – and children won't be eligible for now.
• Meanwhile the latest sobering revelation is that South Africa has missed the payment deadline for Covax and the small batch of vaccines that was expected to arrive about mid way through 2021 has not been secured. The payment to the Covax program will be made in coming days, according to Tandi Nzimande, the chief executive officer of the Solidarity Fund, a philanthropic organisation backed by some of South Africa's richest people and biggest companies. The fund undertook to make the R327m deposit, which represents 15% of the R2.2bn that will ultimately have to be paid, after the government failed to do so.
• South Africa's biggest pot of available cash – R1.91trn of civil-servant pensions and unemployment funds managed by the Public Investment Corporation – is emerging as the key to rescuing the debt-stricken Eskom. The PIC has approached the National Treasury, with a proposal to ease the debt crushing Eskom, signaling officials are gearing up for the complex financial and political operation to convert about R95bn of Eskom debt held by the PIC into equity. A debt-to-equity swap may have to be offered to all creditors and could be classified by ratings firms as a default. "We could lower the rating by one or more notches if the utility undertakes a debt restructuring, which, in our view, could be tantamount to a default," Standard & Poor's said in a statement.
• A South African court has dismissed insurer Guardrisk's appeal against a previous ruling that found it was liable pay a Cape Town cafe's rejected coronavirus claim, says Reuters. Like other insurers in South Africa and around the world, Guardrisk has been battling with clients over its rejection of claims related to the impact of the pandemic on their businesses. Guardrisk appealed a court decision from earlier this year that said it was liable to pay the claim of one of its clients, Cafe Chameleon, but this was dismissed by South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal.

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