Covid-19: Informal traders get green light, funeral rules relaxed

Covid-19: Informal traders get green light, funeral rules relaxed

- After an immense public uproar over the ban on spaza shops and street vendors, the government has now given these small businesses the green light to continue to trade

- Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced that these businesses may resume operation

- This is one of the lessons Dlamini-Zuma says the government has learned during the coronavirus lockdown

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COGTA Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has announced that spaza shops and street vendors have been given permission to resume operations.

Speaking during a media briefing on Thursday, Dlamini-Zuma warned that while some regulations could change, this particular one has been relaxed:

"We have learned a few lessons from the last week of the shutdown. We have realised that spaza shops were supposed to be open, but for some reasons, some were asked to close. We are clarifying that all spaza shops should be opened. We have included informal food traders."

However, it won't be a free-for-all with the minister indicating that traders must obtain a permit in order to operate:

"Informal food traders must get a permit from their ward councillors or their municipality. They are free to trade."

READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Mbalula rescinds 100% loading capacity on taxis after public outcry

Briefly.co.za reported that regulations had been put into place limiting the number of attendants at funerals during the lockdown.

Citizens will now be allowed to travel between provinces in order to attend funerals, but a 50 person limit still applies:

"Even though funerals are not a prohibited gathering of 50 people. We have not said anything in the regulations about how people should move to the funerals because there was a prohibition of movement between provinces, this then affected those who wanted to move from one province to the other for funerals."

Night vigils remain banned, with those seeking to travel long-distance to attend a funeral compelled to request permission:

"Funerals are like church services. Night vigils are worse because people get very close in a small space. Undertakers are not included in the number of people allowed to attend. In rural areas, those who dig graves are not part of the 50. You have to have a permit from a magistrate, police station commander to travel to another province."

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Source: Briefly News

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