Picture for illustration. Boxes filled with tents are seen inside of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on April 7, 2020 in New York, which will be turned into a field hospital. Picture: Peter HUTCHISON / AFP
Ladies and gentlemen, the online shopping doors at the website of your choice are now open to sell almost anything, except of course for those ol’ devils, cigarettes and booze.
Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel, “after consultation with the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs” late yesterday unlocked online shopping for consumers and traders for e-commerce.
This means “the buying and selling of goods using telephones and digital platforms, including the internet and mobile phone-based applications, and for this purpose includes goods to be delivered by a courier or delivery service,” Patel said in Government Gazette number 43096.
“E-commerce can be a critical enabler to opening the economy through contactless transactions, which can reduce the movement of consumers, and the density of shoppers in retail spaces,” Patel said. “Further it can accelerate innovation, support local manufacturing and increase access by the informal market and poorer South Africans.”
How people who don’t have access to running water, let alone the data needed to shop or run a business online should do this, wasn’t explained in Patel’s notice, but all the details on how to keep away from each other and the occupational health and safety act were there.
“To limit the social and economic hardship caused by the pandemic on local industries and enable consumer choice to support local producers, retailers must give prominence to those goods which are manufactured in South Africa,” Patel’s notice stated.
It went on to say retailers “must provide for as many payment options as possible for consumers, that are based on reducing risks of transmission”.
“When packaging goods, retailers must provide written guidelines for customers on how to safely disinfect their goods before use,” Patel said.
“Retailers must put in place collection protocols to ensure adequate social distancing is maintained by courier or delivery service personnel when collecting goods from a warehouse or depot.
“All goods must be sanitised, in line with the guidelines published by the national department of health, before leaving the warehouse.”
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