Professional plumbers, electrician can work again during lockdown

Cooperative governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Thursday announced amendments to some of the national lockdown regulations including declaring essential services such as repair shops, plumbers and electricians.

This comes after the lockdown, initially scheduled to end today, was extended to the end of April. Dlamini-Zuma said that vehicle repair shops would be allowed to operate but only to service cars being used by essential workers and that professional plumbers and electricians will also be allowed to resume operation along with warehouses that are critical to the fight against coronavirus.

“And also vehicle that are used by people who are rendering essential services should they need emergency repairs that should be opened for them. So those professionals who do that will have to be now working,” Dlamini-Zuma said.

“But also for homes, private homes, if you have a burst pipe or something goes wrong with your electricity you should be able to call a professional plumber or electrician to come and sort that out.” Dlamini-Zuma said that these amendments, which are expected to be ongoing, should not be viewed as backtracking on the lockdown by the government.

She said that this was part of preparations for the easing of the lockdown which is expected to end at the end of April. She said they would be making weekly announcements on opening up various sectors hinting that clothing shops may also be allowed to operate to allow people to buy winter clothing.

“I don’t necessarily want to name them but there are things that already are affecting people, winter is coming and so things that go with that obviously will have to be attended to. Schools might be opening [so] things that go with that [will have to be attended to].

“But also, industries will have to slowly come on steam. So don’t think that no every time now that they are changing. No, it’s an orderly way of easing the lockdown. We don’t know [but] for now the lockdown will end on the 30th of April but even if it ends you can’t just open the flood gates in one day,” she said.

She said that call centres that help with services that require immediate attention such as payment or debt insurance should people be unable to pay their accounts due loss of income during the lockdown would also be allowed to operate.

“Of course now we’re using a lot of technology as you know people are working from home, people are Zooming, people are using all sorts of technology to communicate, to have meetings. So it’s important that the, ICT [information communications technology], people who are able to repair, to assist or render services to those essential services that are using technology they should also be able to work.” Sale of alcohol remains prohibited.