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.
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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