Hair and beauty industry's fight with government is about to get uglier

The hair and beauty industry has given the director-general of the trade and industry department until noon to provide guidelines for salons, spas and tattoo parlours to reopen under level 3, or the Employers Organisation for Hairdressing, Cosmetology and Beauty (EOHCB) will go to court.

EOHCB national manager Cobus Grobler confirmed the department failed to meet its “self-invoked” deadline to publish health protocols and guidelines on June 5, which would have led to personal care services being reintroduced under alert level 3 of the national lockdown.

The EOHCB then instructed its lawyers to immediately dispatch a letter to the director-general of the department, calling for a response by close of business on June 8 to enable the EOHCB to consider its position going forward.

Grobler said the organisation has now called for the director-general to respond by noon on Tuesday (June 9).

“If there is no response we will approach the high court,” he told TimesLIVE.

The organisation had previously stated that up to 70% of the country's salons, spas and tattoo parlours face closure as their businesses remain under lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

There are about 90,000 people active in the hair and beauty sector, which is worth about R300bn.

Since the start of the lockdown at the end of May, thousands of workers in the beauty industry have poured out their desperation in submissions to the government. They spoke about losing their rental spaces, not being able to pay staff and closing up shop.

Some have now turned to crowdfunding platforms to put food on the table while others are working under the radar.