Full List of Essential Services During Lockdown

Source:( www.coronavirusmonitor.co.za)

Last night President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that South Africa would be going on a full lockdown as of Thursday 26th March,midnight. President Ramaphosa did however make exemption to essential services that South Africans can have access to during the 21-day lockdown period.

Here is the full list of essential services that will be maintained during the National lockdown ;

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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

 1.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:

• 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.

2. Enabling Services

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.

President Cyril Ramphosa said that a detailed list will be made available in due course. Other than the above, businesses will need to shut down during the lockdown.