DTI website for essential service registration of businesses still not operational on lockdown day

26 March 2020

The website for essential service businesses to register is still not up and running with the lockdown deadline of midnight tonight fast approaching.

This comes after the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) issued a statement last night that the website would be up at the "start of business trading hours" which was 8 am, however throughout the morning it has ceased to function.

Information from sources within the CIPC which is responsible for managing the www.bizportal.gov.za site where registration is to take place, suggests that the entity was given 24 hours notice to have the website and database up and running to issue certificates for businesses deemed "essential services".

This is nothing other than rank incompetence from the Department to properly plan for this function which has sent businesses scrambling to try and understand how they will gain these certificates.

It seems that everybody in South Africa knew that these certificates would be needed except for those employed in the DTI who simply failed to act on this earlier.

Throughout the morning, I have been met with silence from officials within the DTI, and I now call on Minister Patel to urgently get a grip of the situation, his department and to get people into line to fix the problem of this website and show leadership in this time of crisis. Anything short of this will be a dereliction of duty.

Businesses and workers can no longer afford the shambolic confusion that has played out over the last three days.

Issued by Dean Macpherson,DA Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry, 26 March 2020