Letter: Why no masks?

Jean du Plessis of Sheffield writes:

When I was last in Ballito some 2 weeks ago, I was surprised to see a number of people strutting around the Lifestyle Centre without even the pretense of a mask.

While paying for my purchases at the Cookin shop there today, I noticed that the woman crowding me at the till was maskless.

When I asked her politely why she was not wearing protective gear she replied smugly that she was a “conscientious objector” to the government’s Covid-prevention protocols and that it was against her principles to don a mask.

When I then asked her whether, aside from breaking the law, she did not mind about infecting others, she said that her principles were more important and that in any case she believed in “herd immunity”.

Her principles were not strong enough to allow her give me her name and when taxed with her illegal admission the shop manager mumbled something unintelligible which did not seem to include either an explanation or an apology.

I cannot understand why the managers of Lifestyle and its many security guards choose to look the other way when some of its patrons are blatantly putting the health and even lives of others at risk.

Is it a Ballito laid-back thing?

Just try entering Sandton City without a mask.

Lifestyle Centre marketing manager Tessa Woodley replies:

We always appreciate it when our customers take the time to engage with us.

We have implemented very strict protocols at the Lifestyle Centre since the onset of Covid-19 and have endeavoured to manage the situation accordingly.

With the centre having a large restaurant offering (including The Market) customers are permitted to dine without masks but are most certainly not allowed to walk around the centre and enter stores without them.

Thanks to your feedback, we will reiterate this with our security team and on-site management parties.

Your experience will definitely be escalated to the Cookin store as they should not have allowed a customer without a mask into the store.

This is something particularly against our safety regulations and will most certainly be addressed.

Adrie Lauterbach of Cookin replies:

We encourage feedback on all aspects of our store from our customers as it keeps us on our toes and ensures that we are providing the best service in a safe environment.

We are very disappointed to have heard about this incident in our store and have apologised to the complainant.

At the time of writing this mail we had already put the necessary disciplinary actions in place and will also use this example as an opportunity to do some more training on handling these situations.

We want to assure all our customers that we are Covid compliant and practice the Covid protocols extensively and that this is an isolated incident.

We will make every attempt to ensure that all our staff are re-trained to avoid these incidents in the future.