Co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has issued a stern warning to banks, telling them to provide sanitisers at their ATMs or face the might of the law.
She said should a bank fail to follow the new regulations, it would be liable to a fine and its bosses may be sentenced to six months in prison, or both, in line with the lockdown regulations.
Dlamini-Zuma was addressing the media on Tuesday following the extension of the lockdown level 3 with new, stricter regulations.
“There are also some new regulations. The one new regulation is the one about the banks. It came to our attention, especially during the festive season, that ... there is no sanitisation there.
“The regulation now is that every bank or financial institution that has an ATM must ensure there are sanitisers at the ATM. That is very important because, if not, the ATMs can become superspreaders,” said Dlamini-Zuma.
It was easy for Covid-19 to spread if one infected person used an ATM while there were other people in the queue, she said.
Asked whether banks would be able to ensure the availability of sanitisers after hours, Dlamini-Zuma she said she was confident banking institutions would come on board.
“The banks are run by citizens ... they are institutions that must follow the law like everybody else. So if they don’t keep to what they are supposed to do, the penalties are there. They start from a fine, it can be a fine, it can be an imprisonment up to six months, or both.
“Banks are no different from other institutions, and people who manage banks must take that responsibility like all of us who take responsibility in the industries, in the buildings, in the malls that people manage,” said Dlamini-Zuma.
She said she was sure the new rules would not lead to banks closing their ATMs earlier.
“I am quite sure that the banks can provide sanitisers, they can provide personnel. If not they can even have big self-dispensers. The banks must figure out what to do, but the thing is to protect people who go to the ATMs to withdraw money,” said Dlamini-Zuma.
Asked about the uncertainty over the official cut-off date for the current level 3 regulations, Dlamini-Zuma said it was difficult to determine an exact date because the government was not in control of the rate of infections.
“If we were to say on such and such a date those regulations will no longer apply, what if the numbers of infections have not dropped sufficiently to allow that?” said Dlamini-Zuma.
She pleaded with citizens to understand that the regulations were not arbitrary but were there to protect lives.
Dlamini-Zuma repeated Ramaphosa’s announcement on Monday night that all gatherings, apart from funerals, were still prohibited, along with nightclubs and lifestyle establishments.
Dlamini-Zuma added that, among others, social, political, traditional council and faith-based organisation meetings were still prohibited. The sale and distribution of liquor remain forbidden and beaches, public parks and dams continue to be closed.
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