Initially, employers lodged claims under TERS by emailing a designated UIF email address. However, to simplify and expedite the application process, the UIF has recently developed an online portal to lodge claims under TERS.

To assist employers in lodging a claim under TERS using the online application process, the steps to be taken are as follows:

Step One: Go to Website

Enter the URL https://uifecc.labour.gov.za/covid19 into any web browser.

Step Two: Register as User

Register as a user by clicking on the “Register” button which appears on the top left of the application system homepage.

The employer will have to register as a user of the online platform by providing certain information such as, for example, the employer’s UIF reference number and then create a user password.

Step Three: Login Using User Profile

After successfully registering as a user by completing and submitting the above information, the employer will be prompted to further login by entering their UIF reference number as their username and their newly created password.

Step Four: Register as Employer

The employer will then have to further register by capturing its entity’s details including, for example, their PAYE number and chosen payment medium. After having captured these details, the employer will click the “Proceed” button at the bottom of the registration page.

Step Five: Accept Terms and Conditions of Memorandum of Agreement between UIF and Employer

The employer will then have to accept the terms and conditions of the relevant MOA, which will be displayed on the screen, by clicking “Accept”.

Step Six: Accept Terms and Conditions of the Letter of Undertaking

The same process will then have to be followed in respect of the terms and conditions provided in the Letter of Undertaking.

Step Seven: Confirmation of Bank Details

The employer will then have to confirm their bank account details by uploading a PDF document of their bank confirmation in the form of a latest bank statement.

Step Eight: Capturing Affected Employees’ Details

The employer will then have to enter the relevant details of their affected employees, in this regard the employer has an option of doing so by either uploading CSV files (which are Microsoft excel templates provided by the UIF and which have to be converted to CSV files) or capturing their affected employees’ individual details on the online platform.

Step Nine: Wait for Email Confirmation

Once the above has been completed, the employer should be directed to a page providing: “Employee details has been successfully loaded. An email will be sent to client once a claim has been processed.”

Although this online application process is a commendable initiative on the part of the UIF in expediting the application process, the employer should be cautioned that it potentially removes the possibility of re-negotiation of unfavourable terms in the MOA by omitting a step providing an employer with the option to do so. Should employers need assistance in dealing with these issues they should seek further legal advice in this regard.

(With Permission from Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Law Firm)

With lockdown biting hard in the bookselling business, publisher Melinda Ferguson was determined not to just sit by and watch. Shortly before the first lockdown, Prof Pumla Dineo Gqola joked on the publisher’s WhatsApp group about writing a ‘coronavirus book’, and so the idea was born: all 17 writers on the group were challenged by Ferguson to deliver material within 10 days, which within hours turned into 7 days.

‘It was crazy. Everyone agreed. I’m not sure how that happened because there were a few real dawdlers in that group. Next thing copy was coming in and I just started editing furiously, briefing a cover and throwing crazy deadlines at the NB teams, who were all working from home and trying to make sense of my hysterical demands.’

Ferguson says she would like to believe Lockdown, The Corona Chronicles is the fastest book in history. On Monday 30 March, just 7 days after President Ramaphosa’s announcement, the edited and proofed manuscript was sent for layout. The e-book went live that weekend and immediately shot to number 1 in New Releases in Amazon’s Globalisation section.

Coming off a creativity high, Ferguson immediately decided to do another one: ‘The first book had simply sprung to life in a very organic way. Lindiwe Hani always says, tongue in cheek of course, “I was at the wrong place at the wrong time”. So I spent a few hours jotting down a dream list of authors I could approach. This was a few days before the President announced that Lockdown had been extended. I inboxed Fred Khumalo first and within minutes he agreed, he seemed so excited. Next thing I had Sisonke Msimang, Lebo Mashile, Chris Du Plessis, Khaya Dlanga, Siya Khumalo, Ferial Haffajee, Prof Gqola , Rahla Xenopoulos, Haji Mohamed Dawjee – all saying yes! Within 24 hours I had 30 authors and then I started getting calls and mails from a whole bunch of other authors who had heard about the book. I literally had to fend off writers.’

Lockdown Extended went live during the Freedom Day long weekend. Ferguson calls its production a ‘most generous and beautiful process’, and a much calmer one than that of the first book. She sees it as a way for writers to fight back against the idea of irrelevance, driven by a need to make sense of our lives in this time.

What does it mean for the future? Ferguson is certain the industry will need to adapt, and do so quickly: ‘This kind of flash publishing has kept me as a publisher so engaged and I have managed to create a vessel for around 40 authors in three weeks to translate this hectic time into something meaningful and historical. It’s amazing what can be achieved in a week.’

Is this the end of print books? Ferguson does not think so, but passionately believes publishers should start gravitating readers to digital format: ‘Besides getting totally inspired by working with all these amazing writers on both books, my main motivation for doing the Lockdown books has been to try and introduce a traditionally print-buying book reader to e-books. I kept the pricing really low, R100 for Book 1 and R140 for Book 2. I know of many new readers who bought their first e-book ever on Kobo when Lockdown, The Corona Chronicles went live. So I think it’s working. These are very worrying times, but they are also times for opportunity and thinking of new ways to keep our industry alive.’

The Library and Information Association of South African (LIASA), the Professional Body for Library and Information Services (LIS) in South Africa, remains in full support of our South African government and the efforts to address the worldwide SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We actively appeal to our members and the wider Library and Information Services sector to adhere to the current regulations and guidelines well knowing the impact on the sector and on its ability to continue providing information and reading services to communities. LIASA continues to assert the intrinsic value of reading and so this is a loss to us all.

We note that in the easing of the national lockdown to level 4 that “educational” books only will become available for trade. LIASA supports the call to Government to extend this definition to all books to be considered educational. Libraries and Information Services play a crucial role in the development of our country and without a vibrant and sustainable book trade in South Africa, the ability of our libraries to provide a range of books and information to our citizens will be compromised. We applaud the stance of Government to develop and to strengthen the reading culture in our country. However, for libraries and the book trade to continue supporting this position, all types of books are required to be available as core tools in our contribution to the advancement of a literate society.

In South Africa, the book trade is vulnerable and the role libraries play in sustaining this industry cannot be underestimated. Libraries and Information Services are conduits, providing access to books and reading materials in a country where these generally are seen as a luxury. We have seen the growing support for indigenous language publishing and for the underpinning of South African and African literature. We cannot lose momentum in these areas as might be the case with the ringfencing of certain books.

Literacy requires access not only to “educational” books, but also to literature that fuels the imagination, builds word skills and provides a stimulus to future writers. In order for libraries to continue playing a role with other stakeholders in this arena we need a robust book trade and call upon Government to reconsider its stance in relation to allowing the trade of all books.

ALL Books are essential!!

Nikki Crowster
LIASA President

Image: Evan Wise/Unsplash

In light of rental obligations with no income realities, all SABA members are facing at the moment, SABA sent a letter to the Chair of the South African Real Estate Investment Trust (SA REIT) Association.

SA REIT presented the retailers with a proposal suggesting they defer April and May’s rent and amortise it over the next 6 months. That means a rental increase of 33% for the next 6 months. SABA responded to SA REIT on behalf of all its members. [Read more]

Dear Readers,

Booksellers are the curators of our local community’s primary knowledge resources. This is more of a calling than a job. It is not for the faint-hearted nor those averse to risk. In fact, as with our compatriots on the front-lines of the war against Covid-19 in medical care casualty wards, few in this profession would be practising for the sake of self-enrichment. It is a higher desire than profit to educate our young, inspire our adults and exercise the minds of our aged.

Our doctors depend on books, so too every facet of our lives is influenced by readership. If it were not so, every post-apocalyptic scenario would not depict freedom of speech and information as being essential to be attacked, manipulated or controlled. In Fahrenheit 451, in Animal Farm, in the very hieroglyphs at Giza we see the power of communicating thoughts. In early evidence of human activity, whether recording life on a cave wall, stone tablet or paper, this was indeed the expression of people relaying thought to others coming after them. Posterity is written into our genetic code. Whereas authorship is contestable, the result is evident. Books are essential to who we are as a species. The discourse is often occluded by the message. However, since medium and methodology are interdependent, it is only natural that communication as our proof of humanity’s existence is similarly alleged to be interdependent.

In the absurd calculus of a pandemic, we see this more than ever before. Some underestimate the necessity of books and by Lockdown extension, the necessity of Booksellers. Of course these nay-sayers are woefully undereducated. Articles in this newsletter introduce some current remedial interventions. (Letter from SABA: Books as essential services; Letter from PASA: Lockdown and education)

Humanity faces crisis events at notable times in recorded history. Each time, books were banned, burned or bastardised because such is the power of the written word. As the SA Booksellers Association, we have worked continually throughout this period to safeguard our Booksellers members’ interests and in so doing the continuity of this noble community’s curatorship role. We have engaged with various role-players throughout the bookselling value chain in order to ensure the public continues to have a secure book ecosystem for all readers in South Africa both online and offline.

Books are essential. They will continue to be, even beyond the current Covid-19 containment restrictions. Booksellers are encouraged to continue in their vocation for the literacy of all our people. Reading is an overwhelmingly accessible and efficient transmission of concepts. It is therefore a prerequisite for health, civic and community activism, active citizenry, national development, law and order, intergenerational wealth, socialisation, safety and security. Let us not shrink from our responsibility, this is a time to show our commitment as agents of positive change.

Last year at London Book Fair, I was fortunate to have met Trevor Goul-Wheeker, Chair of Blackwell’s. In the discussion and subsequent visits to their bookstores, it was clear that the business of books is irrepressible. Booksellers will adapt and survive accordingly. The challenges Booksellers face regarding declining sales trends have been well articulated in the past however there are some tips relating to Covid-19 available in this newsletter.

I urge Booksellers and others in the value-chain to consider implementing enhanced measures for public safety. Gearing up now will pay off in the future as more viruses pop up and our customers become more circumspect and select brands that are actively involved in protecting humanity’s health. Some revolutionary measures taken by Blackwell’s well before this pandemic were simply good business decisions to future-proof the business and have paid strategic dividends in hindsight where Corona was not the primary concern. Spacing of fixtures on retail floor was maximised, one copy per title on a shelf to limit Customer handling, clear signage regarding minimal staff assistance on the sales floor but monitored and serviced by a bigger back office with more employee ownership and exposure to operations. Efficient use of entry and exits, sanitizer standards, limiting people in stores and marketing at-home delivery of books. All these put Blackwell’s in a better position to cope with health emergencies, well in advance.

In short, a good business can survive the test of time by thinking ahead in fulfilling essential needs. It is these businesses that are ultimately successful in the long run. If you don’t believe me, then best believe this is in fact the investment strategy of the Oracle of Omaha – Warren Buffet – and he has done quite well at that. Books are essential and they fulfil an essential need. Let us stand, socially-distant but united in our endeavours to fulfil the essential role our communities have entrusted in us.

See you in a bookshop soon!

Thanks,

Melvin Kaabwe

SABA President