Eight days since President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that restaurants, hair salons and nail salons would be allowed to reopen for sitdowns under Level 3 of the lockdown, restaurants are still waiting on the government to publish regulations.

In a televised address, Ramaphosa said there was a limit to how long businesses such as restaurants could remain closed during a lockdown, and that government support was not enough to keep them open.

The regulations for personal care services, such as hair salons, was published three days after Ramaphosa’s announcement, but restaurants are still waiting on their regulations.

Restaurant Association of South Africa CEO Wendy Alberts told News24 that they had been informed that the Department of Cooperative Governance had been working around the clock to finalise the new regulations.

She said they were hoping that the government would distinguish between a pub, a coffee shop and a sit-down restaurant - all which would require different regulations.