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MTN stores remain open during lockdown despite intimidation

Samuel Mungadze
By Samuel Mungadze, Africa editor
Johannesburg, 01 Apr 2020

MTN stores will remain open despite the alleged harassment endured by some of its employees at the hands of police and landlords who are enforcing the COVID-19 lockdown rules.

Last night, MTN sent an urgent memo to employees advising them MTN had “decided to close all MTN BRC stores as from tomorrow, 1st April 2020, until further notice”.

The company said there was “still ambiguity regarding the interpretation of essential services. While we are assured that we are indeed operating within a lawful framework as provided and confirmed by the respective ministerial delegations, the subjective interpretation by landlords and national security still exists.”

It added: “To this end, we are seeing some intimidation in certain stores.”

Some employees confirmed to ITWeb they had run-ins with police as a result of them going to work.

On Wednesday morning, MTN executives held a teleconference and it was resolved stores would remain open.

In the Tuesday memo to employees, MTN assured employees it had asked its legal and public sector teams to provide “us with explicit and wholly unambiguous written confirmation from government exempting MTN retail stores from the lockdown”.

Earlier this week, MTN and Vodacom confirmed their branded stores will be operating during the COVID-19 lockdown.

MTN said its focus is giving customers all the support they need, to stay connected during this lockdown, while also protecting its employees.

The telco is keeping less than 20% of its stores open across all provinces during the lockdown and trading hours will be limited to no later than 17h00 daily.

On Monday, Jacqui O'Sullivan, executive for corporate affairs at MTN South Africa, said: “Our intention with keeping these stores open is to offer urgent support to ensure our customers’ connectivity during the lockdown period.

“We will support our customers with device faults and provide support for SIM-swaps, for when devices have been lost, stolen or damaged. In addition, customers can receive technical support for modem and phone set-ups.”

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