COMPLETE LOCKDOWN FOR GOVT SERVICES!

MBABANE - Mbabane Municipal Council employees disinfecting the Mbabane Bus Rank in a bid to combat the spread of COVID-19 yesterday. (Pic: Sithembile Hlatshwayo)

MBABANE – The terminology has not changed, but the message is clear that a lockdown, save for essential services, has been effected by government.

Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo yesterday specifically stated that all businesses and entities that are not involved in the manufacturing, supply or provision of essential goods or services, shall from today cease to operate.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Public Service, Christian Ntshangase, also stated that there shall be a complete lockdown of all non-essential government services with effect from next week Monday until Wednesday April 15, 2020.

Government has constantly maintained that the country is on partial lockdown since the declaration of the national emergency which the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, announced slightly over a week ago.  
Interestingly, in a subsequent interview Minister Khumalo stated that bottle stores would remain open as per the times in the regulations, which is between 11am to 6pm from Monday to Saturday.

Conference

The announcements were made by various ministers yesterday during a series of briefings at a press conference held at the Cabinet Offices.
Minister Khumalo announced that there would be 11 essential service providers and these included food and agriculture sector, retail and consumer goods, network infrastructure and medical and health services.

The minister added that other essential services were those in the IT systems and telecommunications, finance and insurance, tourism and hospitality and communications, for example the media.

He further stated that hardware shops, the forestry industry and sawmills were also classified as an essential service.
Lastly, the minister listed public transport and cross border trade and transport as essential service providers.

“Subsequent to the statement by the PM on April 1, 2020, the Ministry of  Commerce, Industry and Trade hereby prescribes the essential industries that will continue to operate during the period of the partial lockdown,” said Khumalo.
He said this was an attempt to mitigate the spread of the global pandemic, COVID-19 and was in line with the requirements of Section 23 (1) of the COVID-19 Regulations 2020.

The section states that the minister responsible for Commerce shall prescribe essential industries which may continue to operate during the national emergency. Khumalo said for those trading with South Africa, they should note that the republic had imposed further restrictions on their trade regulations and therefore would not accept any trade in non-essential goods.

“All businesses and entities that are not involved in the manufacturing, supply or provision of essential goods or services, shall from Friday April 3, 2020 cease to operate for the duration of the partial lockdown,” said Khumalo.

Guidelines

He said however, all essential services were still required to adhere to the directive and guidelines issued in respect of hygiene conditions and limitations of exposure to persons with COVID-19 in terms of Section 23 (2) of the COVID-19 Regulations 2020.

Meanwhile, Minister Ntshangase said all civil servants working in non-essential operations were expected to work from home for the duration of the lockdown, unless otherwise called upon to report for duty by principal secretaries or heads of department to attend to urgent issues wherever the need arose.
“It is important to clarify to civil servants that this is not leave, but civil servants will be working from home,” said Ntshangase.

Operations

He said all critical operations and essential services would remain in operation and principal secretaries would determine which services should remain operational.
Ntshangase said government had observed with regret that the coronavirus was continuing to spread unabated across the world and country. He said in an effort to contain the spreading of the coronavirus, the ministry had announced prevention measures for the civil service during the past two weeks, which included a partial lockdown within the civil service.

He said, however, these measures seemed to have been inadequate as the spread of the virus worldwide had continued unabated and that government had decided that further prevention measures needed to be taken to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus within the civil service.
He said the ministry would issue a circular with full details to operationalise the complete lockdown.

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