Johannesburg - The government has decided to extend the deployment of soldiers for another three months to fight the spread of Covid-19 and this would cost R1.5 billion.
This follows a letter from President Cyril Ramaphosa to Speaker Thandi Modise and National Council of Provinces Amos Masondo on the extension of the deployment to fight the spread of Covid-19.
Ramaphosa’s decision to extend the deployment of thousands of troops across the country followed the increase in the number of cases of Covid-19.
In his letter to Modise and Masondo the president said there was a need to increase soldiers on the ground.
In a statement Parliament said Modise and Masondo received a letter from Ramaphosa to extend the deployment of soldiers until the end of September.
“The President states that his decision to extend employment of the 20 000 SANDF members from 27 June to 30 September is in terms of Section 201(2)(a) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 read with Sections 18(1) and 19 of the Defence Act of 2002 (Act 42 of 2002),” said Parliament.
“Expenditure expected to be incurred for this extension is R1.5 billion,” it said.
“Their service is in cooperation with the South African Police Service (SAPS) to maintain law and order, to support other State Departments and to control South Africa’s border line to combat the spread of Covid-19 in all nine provinces,” said Parliament.
The extension of the deployment of soldiers comes after the Minister of Health said on Thursday evening there has been an increase in Covid-19 cases.
The number of Covid-19 cases increased to 168 061.
There were 95 more deaths bringing the total number of deaths to 2 884.
Out of the 95 deaths reported on Thursday 38 were from Gauteng followed by 29 deaths in the Western Cape, the deaths in KwaZulu-Natal was 16 and 12 in the Eastern Cape.
Political Bureau
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