RACA Journal May 2020 | Page 29

ASSOCIATIONS POSTPONE/CANCEL EVENTS DUE TO COVID-19 By Ntsako Khosa As positive coronavirus cases continue to increase locally and government has released preliminary precautions to fight its spread, associations have halted certain events. www.hvacronline.co.za W ith over 1 000* reported cases and anticipations of this number rising, President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the nation to reduce social gatherings. He has placed a limit of 100 people for any and all gatherings. Associations like SAIRAC and ASHRAE have cancelled or postponed some events meant to happen until after May. SAIRAC Centres across the country have cancelled courses and Technical Talks until further notice. Robert Fox, chairman of the Johannesburg Centre says, “The President’s announcement regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken by the South African Government to prevent the spread of the virus, with one of the measures that they announced is the temporarily prohibition of large gatherings of more than a 100 people, this does affect us, we have been in consultation with the Country Club Johannesburg, therefore in compliance of Government’s prohibition we have to postpone our 32nd Annual SAIRAC Golf Day to another date later this year, as soon as we have a date we will communicate this to everyone.” ASHRAE has also postponed its Seminar on SANS 10400 hosted by ECSA registered fire engineer Dave Knight from Albrecht Knight and Associates. “Due to the recent restrictions on public gatherings and good practice to assist in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus we are postponing the event. SAIRAC and ASHRAE have postponed some of the events scheduled. We will likely be moving all our scheduled training to a webinar only attendance system. You will be notified of the changes to our scheduled events in the upcoming weeks,” said the Association. RACA *Statistics are correct at time of printing. RACA Journal I May 2020 27