Coronavirus: How SA’s biggest tech companies are responding

Many South African technology companies are allowing their employees to work from home – where feasible – and encouraging them to make use of technology to avoid face-to-face meetings with colleagues and clients.

TechCentral polled a range of large companies in the sector to find out how they are responding to the novel coronavirus outbreak, which causes the Covid-19 illness. Most indicated their operations are largely unaffected beyond the work-from-home measures.

Vodacom

Mobile giant Vodacom, in a statement on the JSE’s stock exchange news service, said on Tuesday that its priority is the “health and safety of our employees while continuing to deliver services and support to our customers”.

“We continue to closely monitor the latest guidance from the World Health Organisation and national, regional and local health authorities and have well developed business continuity plans in place for dealing with such events. These include co-ordinated regional and international incident management, response strategies and the increased ability for Vodacom employees to work remotely without disruption,” it said.

“We have a dedicated team working to maintain the level of service our customers expect from us and have made available various digital offerings to assist enterprise clients. Our day-to-day operations will continue and should not be affected during this period,” Vodacom added.

It said it is ensuring it has “sufficient network capacity to enable people and businesses to seamlessly work from home as South Africa, and our other operations, are very dependent on mobile services due to limited fixed-line connectivity”.

“Given the fluidity of the situation, it is not possible to quantify with certainty the future impact Covid-19 may have on the business — both from an operational and financial perspective. Management is monitoring the situation and proactively dealing with the related challenges.”

It said that, so far, it hasn’t experienced significant supply disruptions but is monitoring the situation closely and putting the necessary measures in place to avoid disruptions. “We are confident that we have the right strategy in place and that we are well positioned to navigate through this period.”

Vodacom spokesman Byron Kennedy said the company is “reinforcing preventative measures with our employees regarding hand-washing, contact, and guidance on internal and external events including the option of virtual attendance”.

MTN

MTN South Africa said it’s taken a “series of precautionary measures to ensure the safety of its employees, customers and suppliers”.

Spokeswoman Jacqui O’Sullivan told TechCentral that the measures include the installation of thermal scanners at MTN offices as an early detection method. It has also introduced enhanced hygiene measures, including hand sanitisers, in all its offices.

From Monday, MTN implemented work-from-home measures for employees across the country.

“The work-from-home procedures may be rotational and, in some cases, skeleton staff will remain on site,” O’Sullivan said. “This includes staff that are required to be physically present. Where employees are unable to work from home because they are needed for operational purposes, those employees are to remain at work. By limiting the number of people in our buildings, we are helping to protect those who have to stay on site.

“The well-being of our employees, suppliers and customers remains our top priority. We have taken these steps as a concerted effort to do our part to contain the spread of the virus and ensure business continuity. Just as we test our emergency evacuation processes, we have been testing our work-from-home processes to ensure that various business units are well prepared to continue business even in the aftermath of an emergency.”

MultiChoice Group

Pay-television broadcaster MultiChoice Group said it has “taken care to minimise the risk of impact to our people, business and the services we provide to our customers”.

“This includes all the recommended public health measures and work place arrangements,” a spokesman told TechCentral via e-mail.

“While we are grateful that we have not yet had a single incident within our organisation, we are working hard to ensure that we keep our employees, suppliers and customers as safe as we can. We are implementing the recommended measures to assess and minimise potential risk of transmission of the coronavirus in our facilities,” said MultiChoice South Africa CEO Mark Rayner in a statement posted on the company’s website on 11 March.

Altron

Listed IT group Altron has asked its employees to work from home and conduct meetings with customers, including colleagues, using technology, said CEO Mteto Nyati.

“In the course of business, we suggest customers use technology to enable them to work from home, and in this instance, we are doing the same. In addition to the statutory 30 days’ sick leave to which employees are entitled, we have provided 15 days of additional sick leave to cater for extended periods of self-isolation and quarantine,” Nyati said.

“We have a work-from-home policy, which is currently in full effect, and are now encouraging all employees to use technology to continue business. We are communicating the importance of taking precautionary measures, observing travel restrictions and modifying behaviours in social settings on a continuous basis.” — © 2020 NewsCentral Media

• TechCentral has asked Dimension Data, Huawei, Vox, Telkom and other companies for comment. This article will be updated when they respond.