Health worker infections have risen to 170 at state and private hospitals and two healthcare staff succumb to the disease in a space of seven days. (Paul Botes/M&G)
STATEMENT FROM THE PRESIDENCY
Given the sharp spread of the virus in certain locations, we need to rapidly move to a lockdown of all non-essential and critical business continuity services.
Essential
and critical business continuity services will need to remain open to support
the health sector and to keep our people healthy, safe, and secure under these
extraordinary conditions. We provide the following guidelines as to what
businesses need to remain open. We ask all businesses and people to take this
seriously and to help us respond as effectively as possible to contain and
minimise the impact of Covid19.
During the course of the lockdown, the following services will need to be maintained:
ESSENTIAL INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES
- Electricity – stable power supply with
no loadshedding
Public and private organisations, their staff and service
providers essential to the generation, transmission and distribution of
electricity will need to continue to operate.
This includes municipalities, and the suppliers of logistics, feedstock
and maintenance will be required to continue to operate and provide security of
electricity supply.
- Water
supply, sewerage and sanitation
Public and private organisations, their staff
and service providers essential to the security of supply of bulk and potable
water and sanitation must continue to operate and provide vital water and
sanitation services. This includes
municipalities and those involved in the supply of materials, chemicals and related equipment.
- ICT – datacentres, fibre optic
infrastructure, towers and antennae
We have extensively
engaged with the ICT sector and are satisfied that connectivity will remain
stable during this period. In this time industry collaboration will be critical
to ensure that society remains connected and functional. The ICT sector
including data centres, fibre optic providers, towers and antennae will need to
operate at high capacity.
The industry will
collaborate and use multiple data sets to provide predictive insights into
spread and impact dynamics of the crisis which will enable government and
society’s ability to be proactive in measures that reduce the curve and social
and economic impact of the spread.
Social platforms will
allow our people to remain socially included and these platforms remain
critical to the dissemination of accurate information. However, our citizens
are reminded that cyber security is off the utmost importance and to be
vigilant to cyber criminals who will, during this time, try to exploit the
public.
CRITICAL BUSINESS CONTINUITY SERVICES TO SUPPORT THE
HEALTH AND SAFETY OF SOUTH AFRICANS
- Food & essential products –
related manufacturing and processing, and distribution
In
order to ensure that people remain well-nourished and apply high personal
hygiene to combat the spread of Covid19, the following operations will
continue:
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- Manufacturing of health related products,
supplies, devices, equipment, and medicines, including complementary health
products; food and essential products, as well as essential inputs thereto.
- Agricultural and food supply related operations,
including farming, veterinary and phyto-sanitary provider services, pest
control services, and chemical and fertilizer providers.
- Fishing operations
- Forestry and sawmills will remain in
production for disposable health and hygiene products, including toilet paper;
as well as for the production of packaging for essential health and food supply
chains.
- Food, beverages and essential products
manufacturing and processing facilities
- Warehousing, transport and logistics for food
& essential products, and health related goods
- The Ports, road and rail networks will remain
open in order to facilitate the import and export of essential products.
- Food outlets – retail, wholesale, spaza shops
and malls for food and essential products.
Essential products
include: toilet paper, cleaners, sanitizers and disinfectants, personal hygiene
products, bedding and clothing, and essential supplies for those taking care of
the sick and in order for people to remain healthy.
To
assist in the Covid19 response, the following services are required to continue
operations:
- All healthcare related services be they
public or private.
- Call centres providing life and health;
energy, food and water supply, social, transactional, communications, law and
order and international critical business continuity services.
- Professional and artisan services, to the
extent that they are providing support in the Covid19 response, essential and
critical business continuity services.
- Cleaning, laundry and hospitality services
supporting the Covid19 response and essential and critical business continuity
services.
- Hotels, airlines, stadiums, car rental
services, to the extent that they are supporting essential or critical business
continuity services and repurposing for
- Financial and insurance services and health
funders required to finance and support essential and critical business
continuity services in the Covid19 response, and provide short term bridging
finance to people and businesses during this period.
- Anti-poaching and wildlife conservation
services.
- Communication and media services on screen,
TV, radio, print, broadcast and online.
- Safety and security services protecting
people and property.
We encourage people
to continue to remain productive and work from home. However, this must the
basis that it does not require contact with people not residing in the home,
and it does not interfere in any manner with the Covid19 response.
A
detailed list will be made available in due course. Other than the above,
businesses will need to shut down during the lockdown.
These
are extreme measures, but essential in order to secure the safety and health of
South Africans in the face of this unprecedented pandemic.