Update
MOSSEL BAY NEWS - An inspection is to be held at Mikeva Hyper in Mossel Bay tomorrow after the store was closed owing to non compliance with lockdown regulations.
Brian Leroni, Corporate Affairs Executive for Masscash, the holding company of Mikeva, says Masscash hopes to resolve the issue of the temporary closure of Mikeva Hyper Cash and Carry Wholesalers, following a visit by the Department of Employment and Labour, sooner than later.
This follows an inspection at the store yesterday (7 April) during which the general manager was approached and informed that he had not adhered to a prohibition notice issued to him on 2 April 2020.
The inspectorate was accompanied by the police and about 150 staff were escorted from the premises.
David Esau, Provincial Chief Inspector, said some of the contraventions included that social distancing was allegedly compromised between the client and cashier and that the sanitisers in the workplace were also not certified, meaning that there was no indication they met the requirements of the regulatory standards.
This morning, Leroni said that initially there was hand sanitiser at the entrance of the store and at the pay points.
“During the initial visit by the department, we had a combination of Jick mixed with six parts of water at these cash till point. We had a shortage of masks and hand sanitiser and placed orders for these, but we were waiting for these to be delivered.”
Leroni says the first inspector issued Mikeva with a notice to improve the circumstances, and ordered the store to then send the department an email that it had remedied the situation.
“We then diverted hand sanitiser and masks to Mikeva and we sent an email to the department, as it had asked, whereafter we continued trading.”
However, it seems that there was a breakdown of communication between the store and the department as a Chief Inspector visited the store yesterday and told management that the department never received such an email.
Leroni says Masscash was immediately instructed to close the store, which it did.
“Yesterday, we had sanitisers in place and all our staff were wearing masks.”
“We therefore did in fact remedy the situation as we were asked after the first visit but the Chief Inspector says he never received such an email and we are saying we can demonstrate that we did in fact send such correspondence.”
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