Music, Arts and Entertainment is absent from the 28 essential services required to function during the nationwide lockdown in SA.
Due to the spread of the Coronavirus which has hit Mzansi, a few days back, President Cyril announced a nationwide lockdown in the country which is expected to affect a lot of sectors. The proposed lockdown is scheduled to begin today, Thursday 26 March 2020, and end in the middle weeks of April, 2020.
As expected, the nationwide lockdown will affect alot of functional sectors within the country but some have been exempted due to their significant impact amid the virus’ spread. After the announcement of the shutdown, the Department of Cooperative and Government affairs published a list of “Essential Services” which will be immune to the scheduled lockdown.
The list of “Essential Services” are 28 in number but sadly, Music, Arts & Entertainment did not make the cut. You may wonder why but we’ll explain. Remember when the president first announced a ban of gatherings of more than 100 people, the people who were most affected by this were artistes. It also led to a slew of cancellations and postponement of shows all over the country. International artistes like Boyz II Men, and Cardi B had to postpone their already scheduled shows as a result of the ban.
The Music, Arts and Entertainment sector cannot function during the lockdown because it would involve a large number of people who would be the audience at shows. This however is highly adviced against as it would lead to the spread of the virus rather than control it. The idea of the lockdown is to limit the virus’ spread rather and control it. The Music, Art & Entertainment sector needs an audience to thrive, but can still achieve this online and also on social media.
The 28 “Essential Services” which are immune to the lockdown include companies that are essential in the production and transportation of food, basic goods, and medical supplies. Since the companies’ personnel are vital to their operations, they will be exempted from the stay-home provisions.
Some of the 28 Essntial Services” include;
- Medical, Health & Laboratory services
- Disaster Management and emergency services.
- Financial services including banking and payment environments, insurance services etc.
- Production abs sales of essential goods (food, medical and hygiene products, electricity, airtime, etc.)
- Grocery stores
- Critical jobs for essential government services.
- Essential municipal services
- Birth and death, ID replacement services
- Funeral services
- Wildlife management, anti-poaching and animal care services, etc.
To see the full list of the 28 “Essential Services” check here.
