South Africa News

Lockdown restrictions and load shedding spell double trouble for SA’s employment

Business and labour are concerned about the crippling double-impact stricter lockdown regulations and load shedding will have on employment in the year to come.

Business Unity South Africa on Thursday said it understood the decision to move to level three lockdown, but Cosatu maintains it could have been avoided.

Eskom implemented stage two load shedding for a second consecutive night in order to build up reserves ahead of next month when millions of people return to work.

“The excuse is getting tiresome – to hear that there is something that are unavoidable – it means there are people who are in charge and it can’t be that everything in this country just deteriorates.”

Cosatu’s Sizwe Pamla doesn’t mince his words when reflecting on the double impact of load shedding and COVID-19 safety regulations will have on the labour force 2021, especially in the mining sector.

“We are deeply concerned; it makes all of the business recovery plans redundant.”

Business Unity South Africa’s Cas Coovadia knows the latest lockdown will impact the economy, but the organization supports President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to put his foot down.

“We are happy that the president has put a firm time limit to the level three lockdown and that we have a period of time until mid-January to see how we as citizens can conduct ourselves so that we can have a positive impact on the virus.”

The virus isn’t the only thing to worry about, uninterrupted power is also key to economic health.

And Eskom on Wednesday said it was trying to build up reserves over the next few days to make sure it could meet the demand when businesses resume in January.

-EWN

In other news – We are not your children – Somizi responds to Bheki Cele’s 9pm sleeping time order (Video)

‘We are not your children and we will never be them’, these are some of the few words from Somizi’s response to police boss Bheki Cele.

Somizi

Somizi Mhlongo shuns Bheki Cele’s order on South Africans sleeping by 9 pm on December 31st, which ought to be a day of celebration for crossing over into 2021. Learn More