Member Article

Background

As you no doubt know, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has been declared to be a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (“WHO”).In this time of global crisis, what is most key-critical to us, is that we continue to look after the wellness of our people while we service your business’s requirements and structure ourselves in a way that we are able deliver to you at the level you have come to expect of ENSafrica.What is paramount to us is that we pay heed to the calls (such as that for social distancing) to protect you and our people, while simultaneously striving to ensure that there is little or no disruption in our client offering and services to you.

What is ENSafrica doing?

Several African health authorities, ministries and governments have recently issued directives on how best to respond to the virus. Before these measures were introduced, we had already taken significant measures to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. For example, non-essential business travel had ceased, large gatherings (seminars, meetings, conferences etc) had been cancelled or postponed and we had advised individuals who may be infected (as identified by the WHO) to stay at home so as to avoid contact with others.In response to the latest developments, we believe it prudent to ensure we put in place the necessary protection and safeguards so that we remain able to comprehensively support you and your business as we face this global crisis together. These include:

1. All of our offices across Africa remain open.
2. We are discouraging face-to-face meetings as protection from unnecessary exposure as a result of external contact and therefore ask that we meet with you face-to-face only in respect of necessary and urgent matters and those that require direct and personal connection. You are welcome to choose alternative means of connecting with us, including phone, Skype and videoconferencing, based on what best suits your requirements.
3. Our systems currently support practitioners who are required to work remotely from both a functionality and confidentiality perspective. Should it be necessary that legal documents/files are removed from our offices, the necessary arrangements will be made in consultation with you.
4. To safeguard your interests further, all practice areas across our offices will be proactively managed to ensure there is always backup and ongoing accessibility to practitioners during this period. This will allow the day-to-day running of our business across Africa to continue and allow you to continue to have direct access to the relevant practitioners whenever necessary.
   
   

We would like to stress that the steps we will now be taking are in response to the situation as it currently presents itself. As you know, the current situation is fluid and changes are happening by the hour and by the day. We will keep you updated as relevant in regard to anything that happens that would impact you, your business and/or our operations.

Please feel free to talk to your usual ENSafrica contact during this time, or either of us.Kind regardsMichael and Mzi

COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus, is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. The disease has since been reported in over 190 countries.