18th June 2020
BUSINESS FOR SOUTH AFRICA WELCOMES REOPENING OF THE ECONOMY; JOINS PRESIDENT IN CONDEMNING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Business for South Africa welcomes President Ramaphosa’s announcement last night (Wednesday 17 June) of the enhanced level 3 regulations which will further lift restrictions on many economic activities. We further wholeheartedly endorse the President’s condemnation of violence against women and children and support his call for an end to femicide. We call on business and all of civil society to join the national campaign to support the victims and combat this scourge of our society.
Business has supported the lockdown because it dramatically reduced the speed at which the virus spread, allowing us time to increase capacity in our healthcare systems so we can better deal with the coming surge of infections. We acknowledge the negative impact on lives and livelihoods from these restrictions.
The move to these enhanced level 3 regulations will allow more businesses to open, more people to work, and more services to be delivered to the public. Increased economic activity will heighten the risk of transmission and we repeat our call for each person in every workplace or social gathering to adhere to the health and hygiene protocols. We must all change our behaviour to protect not only ourselves, but our families, colleagues, friends, and communities. We are responsible for protecting them.
As business we continue to call for evidence-based interventions that balance health, economic recovery, and societal impact. We look forward to examining the detail of enhanced level 3 regulations.
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OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS AND GUIDELINES ON COVID-19
All official government regulations and guidelines are available at https://www.gov.za/coronavirus/guidelines
OFFICIAL RESOURCES:
NICD website: http://www.nicd.ac.za
COVID-19 information website: https://sacoronavirus.co.za
Coronavirus 24-hour Hotline: 0800 029 999
Coronavirus WhatsApp: 060 012 3456
Business for South Africa fully supports the decisive action taken by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government to help mitigate the health, labour market and economic impacts of the coronavirus. As organised business, we are actively collaborating with government to use business resources and capacity to support public sector initiatives.
We have mobilised volunteer resources from across South Africa business bodies and organisations, member companies large and small, professional services firms as well as communication specialists, to form focused working groups that are driving a coordinated and proactive programme to mitigate the economic, social and health impacts of COVID-19 on South Africa.
