Day 26 - Masks on the Wall

 

Lockdown Day 26 - I still have not received my payslip for last month nor any UIF papers from my ex-boss of WebSense Internet Solutions and who also owns Therabreath South Africa, which means I can't claim unemployment. Does that mean I'm stuck between employed and unemployed while this lock down continues. The whole situation is now in the hands of the legal people while all I can do during this lockdown is admire this African mask on this wall while I talk to different people planning what to do for my future.

Community Project

 

With so many large order requests coming in, we partnered with a community project run on the property of one of Sibanye Stilwater goldmines. For us this was the perfect way to let the money from the face masks flow back into the community that would be hard hit when the Corona Virus becomes epidemic in South Africa. We thought that we only had a few weeks window to get masks out onto the faces of the people.

 

The community factory had about 40 sewing machines and could theatrically produce up to 400,000 face masks in a week. But Sibanye said no! "All community programmes" on their property "particularly infrastructure and skills development programmes will be stopped until further notice. Only agriculture projects that have been exempted will continue within the guidelines of the lock down."

 

We tried to appeal Sibanye's decision as this community factory is making essential items and is needed to the upcoming battle to reduce the spread of the pandemic. Nothing, not a word from Sibanye. It looks like we have to go on our own until after lockdown.

Ready for the Bank

 

Well, here is me face, ready for a visit to the bank which I am sure will go down well. I wasn't expecting to be making masks but here I are am, a week and a half into this entrepreneur thingy.

In your Face

 

Big ending to the day, I am so glad that Matthew is home safely. I had to drive all the way to Pretoria to fetch now that the university has closed due to the Corona Virus. And we launched our Camo Face Masks this evening. Now is this in your face or what?

Unicorn

 

Not sure if this is one of the Little Ponies or just a unicorn, but who cares as long as the client is happy with her face mask and she was. Random fact, did you know that the unicorn is the national animal of Scotland. The reason why the unicorn was chosen as the national animal of Scotland was because it was believed that they could kill lions very easily and the lion was the spirit animal of the Scottish biggest foe, the English. There you go little pony

Louise Masks Up

 

Be like Louise, who can see the CoVid-19 Tsunami about to break onto our shores and became an early adopter of our washable and reusable face masks. Louise works at my old company National Positions. It has been a long time, about 5 years ago, wow.

Velile Masked Up

 

I had to go meet with a factory manager which Velile had organized to meet with the potential Chinese request of a million face masks in the next 2 weeks. This CMT factory was built by a gold mine for the miner's wives and daughters. Crunching the numbers this factory can produce for us about 400,000 face masks in a week.

Orders are streaming In

 

I am floored. Today we got an inquiry for a huge amount of face masks to fill an order from China but the catch is that they need to be certified. The company requesting then asked for samples  to be sent for SABS testing. So there goes my weekend.