Employment and Labour Department takes precautions as employees test positive for Covid-19
The Eastern Cape Provincial office in East London and the Vredenburg Labour Centre in the Western Cape Province will be closed as from today, June 08, 2020 as two employees one at each office tested positive for COVID-19.
To ensure that service delivery is not hindered; officials will work remotely from home and only come to the office in shifts with no interaction with the public due to lockdown regulations. The temporary closure of the offices is intended to allow all workers who may have been in contact with the infected officials to be monitored and for the offices to be decontaminated.
The Chief Directors: Provincial Operations; Nomfundo Douw-Jack (Eastern Cape) and Mawele Ntamo (Western Cape) confirmed that the officials have interacted with other employees who were working at the same section. The close contacts of the officials have been advised accordingly and will now be quarantined for a period of 14 days before coming back to work.
Labour centres across the country opened to the public as from today (June 8) and are following necessary precautionary measures which includes temperature screening, maintenance of social distancing and use of personal protective equipment to ensure that staff including clients are protected from infecting each other.
Director General, Thobile Lamati, previously predicted that it is almost inevitable that some staff may be infected and affected. He said: “What is critical is how we respond. With all the given circumstances, the department has responded in the way that is expected which is to follow the laid down protocols”.
Both cases have since been reported to the Department of Health. It is expected that the two offices, the Vredenburg Labour Centre and the Eastern Cape Provincial office will open to the public on the 10 and 12 June 2020, respectively.
Enquiries:
Teboho Thejane, Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 082 607 0694
