Author: Staff Writer

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) will remain fully operational throughout South Africa’s 21-day lockdown which will be implemented from midnight (SA Standard Time) tomorrow, Thursday 26 March 2020. JSE Group CEO, Leila Fourie said that the bourse was constantly monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, continuously engaging with National Treasury, the Prudential Authority and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). The JSE had already moved close to 90% of its employees out of the exchange to work remotely. Critical staff would be able to work from the exchange should the need arise to enable the JSE to seamlessly trade,…

Shoprite, Africa’s largest food retailer, has announced a once-off R102 million appreciation bonus for its shopfloor and distribution centre employees to thank and support them for their tireless efforts to feed the nation in these unprecedented times. The largest private employer in South Africa said this follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call on larger businesses, in particular, to take care of their workers during this period and to marshal every resource and their every energy to fight this epidemic. Supermarket employees are at the forefront of serving and safeguarding customers by implementing the group’s strict hygiene measures while distribution centre employees are…

ISPA calls on South African ISPs and other ICT service providers to take steps to support internet users engaged in online education during the COVID-19 National Disaster period. These steps may include zero-rating educational traffic, temporarily increasing bandwidth caps for some customers, or even providing limited free “lifeline” data packages to customers. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) play an important role in keeping South Africans connected, especially during a time of crisis. Given the ongoing disruptions to schools and universities, all ISPs should zero-rate traffic to national educational learning resources, including learning management systems, institutional repositories, library services and student support…

Access to the official South African COVID-19 website has been made 100% free. Working in partnership with the Department of Health, Vodacom has zero-rated the site so that any customer with a device can have access without data or airtime. With President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 21-day national lockdown declared last night, South African citizens need a trusted, up-to-date, accurate source of information about the COVID-19 pandemic during this uncertain time. The National Department of Health‘s COVID-19 Connect WhatsApp line has provided this information to nearly 2 million people within the last week. In partnership with the NDoH, Vodacom is sending awareness…

At the stroke of midnight on Thursday, South Africa will go on a nationwide lock-down with the exception of essential services. President Cyril Ramaphosa made this announcement on Monday evening, following a meeting held on Sunday with the National Coronavirus Command Council. The lockdown, is government’s bid to contain and slow down the spread of the Coronavirus in the country. The announcement comes a week after the President declared the outbreak a national state of disaster. The nationwide lockdown comes as South Africa saw a surge in the number of confirmed cases rising from 274 on Sunday to 402 by…

In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, The National Coronavirus Command Council has decided to enforce a 21-day nation-wide lockdown with effect from midnight on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday. In a televised address to the nation, the President announced that the lockdown is necessary in order to save lives in light of the Coronavirus. “This is a decisive measure to save millions of South Africans from infection and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. While this measure will have a considerable impact on people’s livelihoods, on the life of our society and on our economy,…

The South African business community has mobilised to combine its resources as a way of limiting the economic, social and health impact of COVID-19 on the country. This emerged at the discussions held by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the country’s business formations on Sunday. Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), the Black Business Council (BBC) and other companies and business associations, have established a Project Management Office aimed at ensuring collaboration with government and to use the available business resources and capacity to support public sector initiatives. “In a unique collaboration across public and private sectors, this will see business being…

South Africa has 402 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 128 from Sunday’s announcement. On Monday, the Health Department confirmed an increase of 128 cases. The Northern Cape has its first confirmed cases. The announcement comes just hours ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on measures to be undertaken to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The President is scheduled to address the nation this evening. “We will thereafter engage the public to give further details and explanations on the results including the significant rise, the ongoing testing processes, each province’s progress on contact tracing efforts,” said…

With the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the full economic impact on business needs to be critically considered. Especially for a country such as South Africa, that is still grappling with the effects of a recent technical recession. We are all very aware of the human toll that the virus has had on societies across the board. We have also seen the measures that various governments have put in place to try curb and gain some sense of control over the spread and intensity of the virus, by encouraging self-isolation during this pandemic. “Taking the necessary precautions is vital,…

As business and society, we are seeing a concerning increase in the transmissions of COVID-19 cases across multiple countries. The virus has had a far-reaching impact on our societies and is testing the resilience and tenacity of businesses and individuals alike. Globally, governments and companies are ramping up efforts to help mitigate the spread of the virus. In MTN’s footprint 17 of our 21 markets have COVID-19 infections. “MTN’s priority is keeping people connected during this period.  We need to play our part in the alleviation of the economic, social and educational impact through the support of key institutions such…