South Africa: update | are remote businesses still allowed to operate during the lockdown?

No express exception was made in the lockdown regulations published on 25 March 2020 for businesses that can operate through telecommunications from the residences of staff members.

This has now been addressed through an amendment to regulation 11B(1)(b) published on 26 March 2020. The amended regulation reads as follows:

"During the lockdown, all businesses and other entities shall cease operations, except for any business or entity involved in the manufacturing, supply, or provision of an essential good or service, save where operations are provided from outside of the Republic or can be provided remotely by a person from their normal place of residence."

The amendment should be welcomed in that it clarifies that the lockdown does not prohibit remote work from home arrangements.*

For more information, please contact:

Johan Loubser

Banking and Finance | Director

jloubser@ENSafrica.com

+27 83 704 6732

*An earlier version of this article pointed out that work from home arrangements were not expressly excluded from the prohibition on the operation of businesses published in the lockdown regulations on 25 March 2020, and concluded that such arrangements were nevertheless permissible on a purposive interpretation of the lockdown regulations. The amendment to the lockdown regulations highlighted above now puts the matter beyond doubt. Such arrangements are permitted.

COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus, is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. The disease has since been reported in over 190 countries.

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