South Africa’s president and ministers are taking a 33% pay cut and extended its lockdown

South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa and ministers will take a 33% pay cut for the next three months, and the money will be diverted towards social and economic relief measures to help the country weather the Covid-19 pandemic. Ramaphosa on Thursday said the country would extend its original 21-day national lockdown, instituted on Mar. “Unless we hold to this course for a little longer, the coronavirus pandemic will engulf, and ultimately consume, our country,” he said in a live address to the nation. Authorities are worried that Covid-19, which has already claimed more than 85,000 lives worldwide, will ravage the country’s vulnerable population and that its already beleaguered healthcare system will buckle under the weight of severe Covid-19 cases. A man walks past a poster covering the side of a building ahead of a 21 day lockdown aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Cape Town, South Africa, Mar. 26, 2020.An economic stimulus package was one of the three pillars of South Africa’s Covid-19 response strategy, Ramaphosa said. The country would also intensify its public health response to slow down and reduce infections, and would increase social support to poor and vulnerable households. The state had also made 500 million rand available for small business debt relief reprioritized 1.2 billion rand ($67 million) to provide relief for smallholder farmers to contribute to national food security, he said. South Africa has one of the world’s largest ministerial cabinets, with 28 ministers and 34 deputies . Malawi’s president and his cabinet said they’d be taking a 10% pay cut to help the country fund its response the pandemic.