[imagesource: Nardus Engelbrecht / Associated Press]

Late last night, without much fanfare, the South African government gazetted some amendments to our lockdown rules.

These come into effect immediately, so it’s worth familiarising yourself with some of the more important changes.

Just to get it out the way nice and early, social gatherings are still not allowed, with the exception of religious gatherings (up to 50 people), funerals, in workplaces for work purposes, and conferences for work purposes.

With each of those, there are strict health and safety protocols that must be followed.

It is still mandatory to wear a cloth face mask or a homemade item that covers the nose and mouth when in a public place, or another appropriate item to cover the nose and mouth.

Do our healthcare workers a favour and mask up, people.

As with many of the announcements made by our government regarding lockdown and alert levels and advanced alert levels, there is still some confusion and further direction required.

BusinessTech with more on that front:

Notably, while the directive states that business sectors such as sit-down restaurants are allowed to open, it does not provide specific directions for their reopening.

Instead, the gazette states that this information will be published in a directive at a later date ‘by the responsible cabinet minister’. A number of additional directives are also expected to provide further clarity around other sectors.

Congrats, restaurants – you can open for sit-down customers under strict conditions, but we haven’t told you what those conditions are, so you’ll have to wait to find out.

Whilst further direction is needed from the relevant minister, it has been made clear that on-site consumption of liquor remains illegal.

Under the new exercise rules, you can now meet up with three other friends as an “organised group”, as long as it’s between the hours of 6AM and 6PM, and you maintain safe physical distancing.

However, beaches and public parks remain off-limits

Here’s the Citizen with more on cinemas, theatres, and casinos:

Cinemas and theatres:

A limit on 50 patrons or less.

The sale of tickets through a booking system.

Adherence to strict health protocols.

Limitation of performers and crew to 15 people.

Casinos:

A restriction on the number of persons allowed in the casino to not more than 50% of the available floor space, with patrons observing a distance of least one and a half meters from each other.

Adherence to strict health protocols.

Personal care services, including hairdressing, beauty treatments, make-up and nails salons and piercing and tattoo parlours, are also now allowed to open, subject to strict health protocols.

The same goes for museums, galleries, libraries, and archives.

For all of the above, however, the relevant cabinet minister will still need to issue sector-specific health guidelines in consultation with the health minister.

In other words, it’s not just restaurant owners who will be waiting to find out when they can actually open, having implemented said guidelines.

Activities that remain off-limits include domestic passenger air travel for leisure purposes, sporting events (with any exceptions laid out in Chapter 4 of the Regulations), and short term home-sharing, letting, leasing, or renting for leisure purposes.

BusinessTech has a list of all the most notable changes here, and if you want to really get stuck in, you can download last night’s full directive here.

[sources:bustech&citizen]