{"id":384889,"date":"2020-03-26T08:10:59","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T06:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=384889"},"modified":"2020-03-26T08:12:18","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T06:12:18","slug":"how-essential-businesses-can-apply-and-register-to-stay-open-during-the-coronavirus-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/384889\/how-essential-businesses-can-apply-and-register-to-stay-open-during-the-coronavirus-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"How essential businesses can apply and register to stay open during the coronavirus lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minister of Trade and Industry, Ebrahim Patel, has announced that all businesses that will be allowed to provide essential services are required to seek approval from the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition for them to trade during the period of the lockdown.<\/p>\n<p>Patel said that such businesses are required to apply to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) Bizportal <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizportal.gov.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website<\/a> <\/strong>and obtain a certificate from the Commission that allows them to continue trading.<\/p>\n<p>The Bizportal website will contain a menu icon listed as \u201cEssential Service Businesses\u201d through which an application can be made to the CIPC, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The application will be a simple declaration requiring minimal registration details including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Type of business\/trade involved in;<\/li>\n<li>What trading name if any is used;<\/li>\n<li>Whether it meets the requirements contained in the list of the essential services;<\/li>\n<li>The contact details of the person applying;<\/li>\n<li>The number of employees that will be working during the lockdown period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The CIPC registry will then pre-populate the remaining company information and email a certificate stating that the business is allowed to remain trading.<\/p>\n<p>The certificate can then be used as evidence to authorities requiring same that indeed the business has been given government permission to trade and that its employees are able to have unrestricted movement ONLY in the course of that trade.<\/p>\n<p>Patel warned that if you make a false application to the CIPC, and are indeed not an essential service as per the government regulations, such will be taken as a fraudulent application and will render yourself as applicant liable to criminal prosecution and sanction.<\/p>\n<p>This service is set to be active from Thursday (26 March)\u00a0at the start of business trading hours.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Cooperative and Government Affairs published new regulations which outline the \u2018essential services\u2019 which will be allowed to continue working during South Africa\u2019s 21-day coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The regulations make provisions for more than <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/384821\/here-are-all-28-jobs-which-are-considered-essential-services-during-south-africas-coronavirus-lockdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">28 jobs<\/a><\/strong> in a range of sectors including health, communications and logistics.<\/p>\n<p>These workers will also\u00a0have to carry a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/384653\/essential-workers-will-have-to-carry-permits-when-travelling-during-the-coronavirus-lockdown-heres-how-it-works\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">permit<\/a> <\/strong>showing that they are classified as \u2018essential\u2019 and are allowed to be on the roads.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/384717\/you-cannot-buy-alcohol-or-walk-your-dog-during-coronavirus-lockdown-as-south-africa-introduces-strict-new-measures\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">You cannot buy alcohol or walk your dog during coronavirus lockdown as South Africa introduces strict new measures<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minister of Trade and Industry, Ebrahim Patel, has announced that all businesses that will be allowed to provide essential services are required to seek approval from the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition for them to trade during the period of the lockdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":375192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-384889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384889"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384899,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384889\/revisions\/384899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}