Good ideas are few and far between in the shackles of lockdown, but the creative team at LAPA publishers put their heads together to come up with the wonderful idea of Tippie-branded masks. The much-loved character, the creation of illustrator Zinelda McDonald, features in the Learn To Read series, and will now help to make ‘masking up’ just a tad less scary for young readers.

Sylvia de Wet, CEO of LAPA, gave some insights as to how it all came about: ‘We made the masks by combining a lot of creative people in the process and we all did our magic from home. Our production team was in contact with an enthusiastic entrepreneur with a vinyl printer at home, and she immediately responded to our plight for printing on the right material. She also proved to be very skilful on a sewing machine. And the Tippie masks were born!’

According to De wet, the uncertainty of the times is unlocking hidden potential in businesses, forcing businesses to find new ways of communicating with customers. ‘Agility, grit and adaptability is key, these will be the portals to survival,’ she says. ‘The combination of an innovative mindset supportive of an evolving collaboration with stakeholders, will prove to be the way forward.’ The masks are currently for sale to all customers of LAPA. Contact  bestellings@lapa.co.za

With lockdown eased to level 4 and hopefully continuing to open up, managers have to prepare for open up shop. Here are post-lockdown to-do list guidelines and suggestions.

• Permits, where applicable
• Deep clean premises (public facing surfaces, multiple times a day)
• Order sanitiser at doors (preferable single entry/exit)
• Masks/visors for staff (or see through Perspex screens mounted on counters)
• Contact-less payment methods
• Email receipts/ invoices
  

• Gloves for staff (difficult to handle money with gloves but OK for back office/receiving)
• Floor markings for queues (1 m spacing)
• Social distancing training for staff
• Thermal scanners to check temperature
• Covid-19 tests for staff (at Dischem)
• TERS claims
• Insurance
• Laminated poster of government rules
• where Public toilets are available, touchless sanitary equipment (soap dispensers, air hand-dryers, foot-operated taps)

Image: Mohamed Hassan/Pixabay

Image: Harinath R/Pixabay

The Department of Basic education on 18 April, announced the postponement of the May/June Matric examination. More than 350 000 part-time learners some who did not meet the pass requirements and others who want to rewrite to improve their marks will have to wait until November 2020. [Read more]

Initially, employers lodged claims under TERS by emailing a designated UIF email address. However, to simplify and expedite the application process, the UIF has recently developed an online portal to lodge claims under TERS.

To assist employers in lodging a claim under TERS using the online application process, the steps to be taken are as follows:

Step One: Go to Website

Enter the URL https://uifecc.labour.gov.za/covid19 into any web browser.

Step Two: Register as User

Register as a user by clicking on the “Register” button which appears on the top left of the application system homepage.

The employer will have to register as a user of the online platform by providing certain information such as, for example, the employer’s UIF reference number and then create a user password.

Step Three: Login Using User Profile

After successfully registering as a user by completing and submitting the above information, the employer will be prompted to further login by entering their UIF reference number as their username and their newly created password.

Step Four: Register as Employer

The employer will then have to further register by capturing its entity’s details including, for example, their PAYE number and chosen payment medium. After having captured these details, the employer will click the “Proceed” button at the bottom of the registration page.

Step Five: Accept Terms and Conditions of Memorandum of Agreement between UIF and Employer

The employer will then have to accept the terms and conditions of the relevant MOA, which will be displayed on the screen, by clicking “Accept”.

Step Six: Accept Terms and Conditions of the Letter of Undertaking

The same process will then have to be followed in respect of the terms and conditions provided in the Letter of Undertaking.

Step Seven: Confirmation of Bank Details

The employer will then have to confirm their bank account details by uploading a PDF document of their bank confirmation in the form of a latest bank statement.

Step Eight: Capturing Affected Employees’ Details

The employer will then have to enter the relevant details of their affected employees, in this regard the employer has an option of doing so by either uploading CSV files (which are Microsoft excel templates provided by the UIF and which have to be converted to CSV files) or capturing their affected employees’ individual details on the online platform.

Step Nine: Wait for Email Confirmation

Once the above has been completed, the employer should be directed to a page providing: “Employee details has been successfully loaded. An email will be sent to client once a claim has been processed.”

Although this online application process is a commendable initiative on the part of the UIF in expediting the application process, the employer should be cautioned that it potentially removes the possibility of re-negotiation of unfavourable terms in the MOA by omitting a step providing an employer with the option to do so. Should employers need assistance in dealing with these issues they should seek further legal advice in this regard.

(With Permission from Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Law Firm)

With lockdown biting hard in the bookselling business, publisher Melinda Ferguson was determined not to just sit by and watch. Shortly before the first lockdown, Prof Pumla Dineo Gqola joked on the publisher’s WhatsApp group about writing a ‘coronavirus book’, and so the idea was born: all 17 writers on the group were challenged by Ferguson to deliver material within 10 days, which within hours turned into 7 days.

‘It was crazy. Everyone agreed. I’m not sure how that happened because there were a few real dawdlers in that group. Next thing copy was coming in and I just started editing furiously, briefing a cover and throwing crazy deadlines at the NB teams, who were all working from home and trying to make sense of my hysterical demands.’

Ferguson says she would like to believe Lockdown, The Corona Chronicles is the fastest book in history. On Monday 30 March, just 7 days after President Ramaphosa’s announcement, the edited and proofed manuscript was sent for layout. The e-book went live that weekend and immediately shot to number 1 in New Releases in Amazon’s Globalisation section.

Coming off a creativity high, Ferguson immediately decided to do another one: ‘The first book had simply sprung to life in a very organic way. Lindiwe Hani always says, tongue in cheek of course, “I was at the wrong place at the wrong time”. So I spent a few hours jotting down a dream list of authors I could approach. This was a few days before the President announced that Lockdown had been extended. I inboxed Fred Khumalo first and within minutes he agreed, he seemed so excited. Next thing I had Sisonke Msimang, Lebo Mashile, Chris Du Plessis, Khaya Dlanga, Siya Khumalo, Ferial Haffajee, Prof Gqola , Rahla Xenopoulos, Haji Mohamed Dawjee – all saying yes! Within 24 hours I had 30 authors and then I started getting calls and mails from a whole bunch of other authors who had heard about the book. I literally had to fend off writers.’

Lockdown Extended went live during the Freedom Day long weekend. Ferguson calls its production a ‘most generous and beautiful process’, and a much calmer one than that of the first book. She sees it as a way for writers to fight back against the idea of irrelevance, driven by a need to make sense of our lives in this time.

What does it mean for the future? Ferguson is certain the industry will need to adapt, and do so quickly: ‘This kind of flash publishing has kept me as a publisher so engaged and I have managed to create a vessel for around 40 authors in three weeks to translate this hectic time into something meaningful and historical. It’s amazing what can be achieved in a week.’

Is this the end of print books? Ferguson does not think so, but passionately believes publishers should start gravitating readers to digital format: ‘Besides getting totally inspired by working with all these amazing writers on both books, my main motivation for doing the Lockdown books has been to try and introduce a traditionally print-buying book reader to e-books. I kept the pricing really low, R100 for Book 1 and R140 for Book 2. I know of many new readers who bought their first e-book ever on Kobo when Lockdown, The Corona Chronicles went live. So I think it’s working. These are very worrying times, but they are also times for opportunity and thinking of new ways to keep our industry alive.’