As you will have heard, in his address to the nation last evening, President Ramaphosa announced a complete lock down of the country, which will take effect from midnight on Thursday, 26th March 2020.
Whilst as citizens, what this means is clear... we remain at home.
What this means for us an industry, however, entails a number of questions, for which we do not yet have all the answers.
We are working feverishly to get this information through to you, but as we do not want to give you any unqualified information, we would rather delay our communication than spread misinformation.
A task team constituting the MBA, BIBC and the Trade Unions has been constituted and will be meeting to discuss the implications of the lock down and the impact on our industry and staff.
That said, there are a number of fake news items which are circulating at the moment which we would like to make you aware of:
Around only 51% black-owned enterprises qualifying for assistance:
Messages making this claim that are circulating on social media have been slammed by the Minister of Small Business development, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni as fake news, at a media briefing held this morning. While companies must be 100% South African owned and must have 70% South African workers, there will be no requirement for black ownership. The department will make sure that it will have a "demographic spread" in its assistance of companies, and priority will be given to companies that benefit women, young people and people with disabilities according to the Minister.
2. Around construction being allowed to continue past midnight on Thursday 26th March:
The social media post making this claim is fake news and should be ignored and only the provisions outlined in the President's announcement around continuous process industries being placed under care and maintenance apply.
We will endeavour to get answers to you as soon as possible, but should you need to contact any of our staff, below are mobile numbers where they can be reached:
Allen Bodill
Executive Director
082 555 7291
Des Paterson
Assistant to A. Bodill
082 658 6622
Deon Bester
OHS Manager
083 262 9868
Siya Mbinambina
OHS Officer
063 448 8421
Janice Zeeman
Accountant
082 430 5830
Stephen Arrow
Membership Services
071 312 9372
Tony Keal
HR/Labour Relations
082 400 6244
Letitia van Rensburg
Training Officer
082 497 2096
Aziza Behardien
Membership Admin
071 454 0868
Please keep a look out for a further update which will be sent as soon as we have additional information to share with you.
