South Africans woke up to the news that face masks will be a thing of the past, as the regulation enforcing the wearing of masks has been repealed. Even though capacity limitations regulations and the regulations dealing with travel into South Africa, requiring a PCR negative test have also been repealed, the impact of not wearing masks will be felt by every citizen in South Africa.  

We have followed the trend of many countries that have removed the requirement of wearing masks and it is, in our opinion, good to see that the government has considered medical information from local and international sources to make this decision, which it has not taken lightly.  

It will be interesting to see if the man on the street feels comfortable walking without a mask as many people seem to clutch to their masks as a form of physical and mental safety against a virus that at one time took the life of their friends or family members. 

By Chanique Rautenbach
Senior Associate