Well, according to ENS Africa employment executive, Lauren Salt they can. 

This week Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, repealed the National Health Act Regulations relating to the Surveillance and Control of Notifiable Medical Conditions (NHA regulations). 

Salt says that the repealing of the NHA regulations does not affect the Code of Practice on Managing Covid-19 in the Workplace which she unpacked on the OFM Business Hour previously.

The new Code of Practice under the Labour Relations Act (LRA) deals with mandatory vaccinations in very similar circumstances that the consolidated direction did. There must be a justifiable reason for imposing mandatory vaccinations; and an employer must go through a certain process in implementing policies and dealing with objections and the like. “One important inclusion in the new code of practice is the recognition of booster shots,” says Salt.

Furthermore Salt says “the terms of the Code of Practice may include: "social distancing measures, including minimising the number of workers in the workplace through rotation, staggered working hours, shift and remote working arrangements; PPE measures; personal hygiene measures such as the wearing of facecloth masks, barriers, hand washing, sanitisers and surface disinfectants; any special measures to mitigate the risk of infection or serious illness or death in respect of individual employees at increased risk, such as reducing the numbers in and the duration of occupancy in meeting rooms."

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“To the extent that an employer elects to maintain mask-wearing and employees refuse to obey the instruction, the employer may have grounds to discipline employees for insubordination,” warns Salt. 

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