Tag: essential services

As essential services continue to digitise at an increasing rate, digital identity will remain central for businesses and governments. In many cases, digital identity is recognised as the first line of defense in protecting funds and data. As a result, business attitudes toward digital identity are evolving fast.

The introduction of the new regulations in the Social Development Grant Act is commended and we stress the crucial role this will have in ensuring the lawful allocation of government funds. It can be emphasised that government needs to do more to hold citizens accountable for their own progress and own development.

South Africa has experienced severe load shedding (i.e. controlled/scheduled power cuts), almost daily, since September 2022. This recent spike and high frequency of load shedding can be largely attributed to a significant drop in Energy Availability Factor of the coal fleet that has not been optimally maintained due to several  factors.

Encouraging public sector organisations to become more innovative has always been important. However, doing so has likely never mattered more as the world wrestles with the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak and recovery.

After months of managing the COVID-19 crisis, people and businesses are depending on the public sector to guide them through the next several months and possibly years of uncertainty. It’s time to capitalise on what’s been achieved via the new policies and service delivery models that were developed in response to the crisis.

As the COVID-19 crisis redefines how economies and society as a whole function, human ingenuity has sparked a wave of innovation set to be the blueprint for the decades to come. According to the 2021 Trends, organisations will have the opportunity to map out new territory as they embrace new strategies, services and experiences to meet evolving human needs.

COVID-19 cannot take all the blame for the disruptions taking place in the global economy. The pandemic and resultant lockdown simply provided a conduit for highlighting the failings across industries in South Africa, whether that is healthcare, public transport, education, or others.

The issue is whether an essential service in terms of the Disaster Management Act (DMA) is deemed an essential service for the purposes of the Labour Relations Act (LRA), thus barring employees from engaging in protected strike action.

An interview with Jacques van Wyk, Director, Werksmans Attorneys, and Dr Ivor Blumenthal, CEO, ArkKonsult, discussing an article penned by Bradley Workman-Davies, Director, Werksmans Attorneys, in the August/September edition of BusinessBrief, apropos an important recent judgement in the Johannesburg High Court which has provided some clarity with regard to no-work no-pay during the lockdown.

Due to coronavirus affecting South Africa as well as the rest of the world in such a deadly and disastrous way, businesses have been significantly impacted during this lockdown period, with many of them putting everything on hold that is not essential service related.