Invitation from Business for South Africa

Business For South Africa (BSA) is the umbrella organisation now representing the vast majority of all business associations in South Africa including Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), Black Business Council (BBC), the Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) and its members.

BSA is responsible for assisting all its members and government, to the extent that government so requires, in ensuring the best, fastest and most effective reaction to COVID-19 in all areas. The BSA team includes the senior executives of the majority of major companies in South Africa including the CEOs of all of the major banks, industrial and mining houses, hospital groups, medical aids, consulting and other firms. Task teams have been set up to proactively assess and implement business initiatives to deal with the impact of COVID-19 in health, the labour market and the broader economy, all three of which will be assisted by a communications task team. The health workstream is focused on mobilising resources to contribute to COVID-19 tracing, tracking, testing, monitoring and pathology labs; communicating around COVID-19; hospital responses and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), medicines and medical devices; and support the National Health Department with capabilities to enable more specific demographic resource deployment. The BSA workstream for DATA & ANALYTICS is assisting the national command council with guidance on temporary facilities during the pandemic, including identifying locations near to potential hotspots, facilities (public and private), providing minimum specifications, GIS mapping, etc. The need to fast-track preparation of specifications for field hospitals was flagged at the BSA COVID Health Response Workstream Leads call on 4 April 2020, resulting in the CSIR being invited to draft minimum infrastructure requirements for Alternate Care Sites – national norms and standards. Kate Roper Client Director, Health and Education, Aurecon. 6 April 2020