On Monday, 23 March 2020, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced an unprecedented and – by global standards – highly restrictive national lockdown in response to the CoViD-19 pandemic, temporarily suspending all non-household social contact, travel and almost all economic activity (excluding essential services such as healthcare, banking and financial services, the South African Police Services and the South African National Defence Force). On 9 April, the President announced the creation of a national Solidarity Fund, aimed at mobilising government, private sector and individual resources to support the country’s CoViD-19 response.
These events occurred against the background of an existing (long-term) economic recession, exceptional economic inequality and some of the highest sustained levels of unemployment anywhere in the world. As a result, there existed (within a sizeable and influential segment of the market) a negative perception of (and lack of trust in) large, formal businesses and of market-based economic institutions, including of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
As an essential service, the JSE continued to operate (mostly remotely) throughout the lockdown. The JSE’s core strategic objective was to maintain confidence in the continued operation of the market, and in the financial system as a whole. In addition, the JSE felt a responsibility to act as a market leader in rallying support for the country’s CoViD-19 response, including in particular of the National Solidarity Fund, and to utilise the opportunity to enhance the JSE’s position (and the position of market participants more generally) as responsible social partners.
