South Africa: Certain call centres are now able to operate during the lockdown

On 9 April 2020, the Departments of Health, Trade and Industry, and Competition issued a directive in terms of Section 27(2) of the Disaster Management Act, 2002 that allows call centres that provide health, safety, social, support, government and financial services to international markets to operate during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.

The operation of these call centres is subject to strict conditions which include, amongst other things, the requirement that:

each call centre conducts a risk assessment to identify, mitigate and eliminate potential exposure to Coronavirus (COVID-19) transmission
employees maintain a social distance of at least one and a half square metres
access points with biometric contact are deactivated
employees’ temperatures are checked at the start of each shift
the CEO or his or her designate provides a weekly report to Business Processing Enabling South Africa regarding compliance with this directive

Law enforcement and inspectors are also granted the power to inspect call centres at any time.

The directive reiterates that the lockdown conditions remain fluid and that government is assessing and amending the regulations as required.

Isaivan Naidoo
Executive | Technology, Media and Telecommunications
inaidoo@ENSafrica.com
+27 82 310 5172

Lucinda Botes
Candidate Attorney | Corporate Commercial
lbotes@ENSafrica.com
+27 79 699 0344

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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