Tag: lockdown

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.

After a few months of COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa, there is no doubt that somehow all the rules seem to have changed for civil society, and indeed also for the world of business at large. Businesses across the world have had to quickly adapt to their respective COVID-19 regulations with South Africa having become known as a country with some of the strictest Covid-19 regulations in place in an attempt to flatten the COVID-19 curve, and save lives.

In March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 21-day ‘hard’ lockdown, later to be known as a level 5 lockdown. It certainly caused flutter in the financial markets, forcing almost the entire economy to cease operations and people to be confined to their places of residence.

The devastation caused by the coronavirus has impacted every aspect of our lives, including how we shop. South Africans, historically cautious about shopping online, but faced with the realities of lockdown restrictions, turned to online shopping in unprecedented numbers since the start of 2020.

Santam faces a litany of urgent court applications for flaunting the regulatory boards’ warning and refusing to pay out valid COVID-19 business interruption claims. A flood gate of final demands have been issued against insurance giant Santam in respect to business interruption claims from insured business owners and respondents across South Africa that Santam refuse to pay out despite the insurance regulatory authority’s direction to do so.  

As most household incomes shrink, Savings Month, this year coinciding with South Africa’s fifth month of COVID-19 lockdown, is placing monthly expenses, especially insurance bills, firmly in the spotlight. And it is not a kind light. It is critical that South Africans under stress use any extra time they may have in lockdown to sensibly review their insurance covers.

With the easing of the nationwide lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic through the Government's 'Risk Adjusted Strategy' (comprising of five lockdown levels), more and more business can lawfully operate again. As a result, employees will be returning to work and employers will be obliged to remunerate them again.

An interview with Kevin Black, Director, VAT Claims International, and Dr Ivor Blumenthal, CEO, ArkKonsult, discussing how COVID-19 and the lockdown has severely impacted business cash flows. Surviving the shock is challenging the resilience of enterprises and executives.

South Africa’s telecommunications (telcos) companies need to rapidly evolve by adding additional services for a new mobile working and learning world in order to stay relevant and profitable.  Their legacy business model of telcos which has long sold data and SMS packages to consumers, is no longer enough on its own - a fact that has been brought into stark relief throughout the lockdown period. 

The Western Cape High Court decision to compel insurance company Guardrisk to honour the COVID-19 business interruption insurance claims of Cafe Chameleon, a Cape restaurant, is to be applauded.