Western Cape government is pushing to re-open e-commerce

The Western Cape government has called on the national government to allow e-commerce to go into full swing again, as part of a concerted effort to save jobs.

One of South Africa’s leading online shopping companies employs close to 8000 people and says while no jobs have been shed, it would be unsustainable should the situation persist.

Takealot is where many online purchases occur in South Africa. It’s 40 000 square meter warehouse is where the merchandise is shipped from and over 400 people are employed there.

During the first 30 days of lockdown the facility only traded at 15% of its normal revenue.

Takealot CEO and founder Kim Read says even e-commerce has nearly ground to a complete halt as a result of the lockdown and believes that this was a decision that was not well thought through.

Read says, “When you look at it, it’s trading world wide, it’s trading without restrictions, it promotes social distancing, what more can you ask for at this time. But our biggest impact is really on the sellers who are on our platform.  The guys who are unable to sell products on our platform – we went from 2500 sellers to roughly 500 overnight, though it’s starting to come back again slowly.  But those are businesses that are impacted by these kinds of decisions.”

Western Cape Minister for Finance and Economic Opportunity David Maynier says he’s written to the Ministry of Trade and Industry for the opening up of e-commerce.

Maynier says, “I think e-commerce allows businesses to trade in a way that’s safe, to trade virtually but also to deliver thousands of parcels across the country in a way that’s contactless and safe. We think that the national government needs to give serious consideration to re-opening e-commerce across South Africa.”

Discussing the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on e-commerce:

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Western Cape Premier Alan Winde says more and more businesses, big and small, have an online footprint and more-over, he says e-commerce minimises contact between customers and retailers.

Winde says, “We’ve been talking about the 4th industrial revolution for the last few years and we’ve been talking specifically about how we innovate in South Africa and how we move to the next level and this is exactly what should be happening because you’re minimising that kind of contact and we know that the contacts in our retail spaces is where we’re actually spreading the virus and here we’re minimising it.”

He says the economy has to get up and running as soon as possible in a safe way, and e-commerce is one such industry to facilitate this.

On Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the country should be prepared for a new reality in which the fight against COVID-19 becomes part of citizens’ daily existence, for the coming year or more.

He said, “The next challenge is the economic challenge, COVID-19 has brought about a total destruction of our economy. Our economy, as we speak now, is under a great deal of stress and challenge. We now need to collectively respond to how we are going to rebuild and reposition this economy.”

Ramaphosa in his weekly letter said as many more people are gradually going to work during the Level 4 lockdown, there will be an inevitable increase in infection numbers as well as demands on the health care sector.