The Department of Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Destea) has since the implementation of the levelfive lockdown regulations nearly five weeks ago, led oversight visits to 15 towns in the province.

These inspections, which were joined by police, Home Affairs officials, the National Regulator for Compulsory Specification (NRCS), and various municipalities, resulted in at least four more arrests, bringing the tally of arrests for non-compliance withthe Disaster Management Regulations to above 20 since the beginning of the lockdown. The arrests include unregistered asylum seekers and a crafty businessman who allegedly made fraudulent copies of lockdown certificates and sold them to ten other businessesin the Boshoff black market for R2 500 each. Free State police are yet to comment on the latter arrest. Destea says they will continue the inspections beyond the lockdown.

OFM News previously reported that MEC Makalo Mohale and others have discovered during the inspections “that there are a lot of foreign nationals who are not properly documented, running spaza shops in many towns and townships”. As a result, most of thesesmall businesses are not registered and not in possession of municipal permits. Other local businesses were found to be overpricing essential items and flouting health and safety regulations. The department does not mention any business by name.

Meanwhile, the National Consumer Commission (NCC) has since the coronavirus outbreak in South Africa and the subsequent lockdown, been inundated with complaints from the public regarding the price inflation of essential items, such as hand sanitisers,gloves and masks. The NCC has since updated the public on a few of these cases, including that of Dischem, which has been found guilty by the Consumer Tribunal of inflating the price of essential items in some cases by 200%. Acting Commissioner at the NCC,Thezi Mabuza, says the NCC has in the first three weeks of the lockdown received 1400 complaints, which is unprecedented, as they usually receive 400 in a single quarter.

OFM News