We are living in unprecedented times where the imperative is to contain the Covid-19 virus whilst continuing with essential economic activities to keep the country afloat. Under Level 2 Lockdown, our stores remain open to ensure you have access to our products and essential financial services.
- As the number of positive Covid-19 cases continues to rise daily, our staff, like everyone else, are not immune to the virus. I assure you that as a business we align to set Ministry of Health guidelines. We continue to follow strict protocols as a business to reduce the escalation of Covid-19 infections through our business network. These include ensuring our people wear fabric masks at all times in stores and on public transport. Customers are also only allowed to enter our stores if they are wearing masks.
- Screening of staff when they arrive for work and during the day to ascertain whether they have any of the observable symptoms associated with Covid-19; namely fever, cough, sore throat, redness of eyes or shortness of breath (difficulty in breathing).
- Screening customers at all store entry points and ensuring hands are sanitised.
- Maintaining social distancing principles at all times. This includes continuous monitoring of how many people are in our stores at any one time and reducing those numbers, whenever necessary, to ensure we are adhering to social distancing protocols. We encourage you to leave your loved ones and children at home, if possible, for their health and safety. Our social distancing markings at our service centres are there to encourage you and our people to maintain the recommended minimum of 1-metre distance from those around you.
- Ensuring that if employees are sick or have symptoms associated with Covid-19, they do not come to work.
- Providing our staff with ongoing training and guidance on personal hygiene and preventative measures in our stores, our stores are thoroughly cleaned daily, and all equipment and work surfaces are disinfected frequently throughout the day with specific focus on high traffic touch points such as door handles, counters, fixture rails and fitting rooms.
These health and safety measures are not only being applied instore, but right across our business from the factory to our distribution centres and administrative offices.
In the event of any of our staff testing positive for the virus, we close the location for deep cleaning and sanitisation which is carried out by a disinfection team. All other staff in that location are also tested for the virus as a precautionary measure. Through this, we hope to curb the continued spread of the virus and guarantee some measure of safety for you, our customer, in our shopping environments.
We have also adopted innovative measures to enhance our service convenience. Over and above encouraging the use of online payment transactions to settle your monthly instalments, we have introduced WhatsApp shopping as an option for you to continue enjoying our services in the comfort of your home. Please visit our social media pages and websites for more information about these options.
I encourage every one of you to continue practising social distancing, wearing masks and hand-washing with soap under running water for at least 20 seconds, as these remain the most important prevention measures for Coronavirus infection whether at work or at home. We all have the responsibility to look after each other and do our part to protect our families and friends.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you, our valued customers, for your unwavering support during these trying times. We appreciate you and will honour our promise to continue to serve you.
Together we can fight this!
T. NDLOVU
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER