Lockdown

Dear Client

As you are aware from Thursday 26th March South Africa is officially in lockdown for 21 days!

In our most recent note to you on the impact of COVID-19, we wrote ‘On a practical note, owing to the need for all of us to play our part in minimizing the spread of COVID-19, we have taken the decision that it would be better for you if you were not unnecessarily exposed to risks posed by physical meetings for the time being. Unless it is absolutely essential that we meet in person, we will be engaging with you via conference calls.’

Simultaneously, we also split up the RCI team into two groups – an @home and an @work group – so that we were not all exposed should the virus permeate the work environment. As fate would have it, there has been one employee of Anchor’s who did contract the corona virus last week and immediately went into isolation (went to a wedding with guests from overseas). Fortunately, he has recovered and there have been no more cases that we are aware of. We were all informed immediately and those who had had direct contact with him also went into isolation.

Yesterday, we had already taken the decision that as from today, the @work group would also start working from home. Consequently, we are organised to continue operating as usual and do not envisage the workflow being disrupted, as systems are already in place to continue with ‘business as usual’. All staff landline extensions have been forwarded to their mobile phones, every staff member has a workstation at home and we will address any requests you may have in the normal manner. With respect to your payment requests, monthly drawings etc., Michelle (michelle@rcinv.co.za) has already been operating from home for a week and the system is working well. Trading on the markets continues as normal – this has also been done electronically from home for the past week and your month end reports will be sent out as part of our normal routine processes. Even though we cannot meet with you face to face, we have several mechanisms in place to have ‘electronic’ meetings with you either via conference call or video call where necessary. There may be the odd challenge but in this ‘connected world’ of ours we are sure we will find a solution!

Please find below a list of all of our cell phone numbers, our email addresses and our functions within RCI, should you need to get in touch with us for any reason:

We wish to reassure you that we are constantly monitoring the unfolding impact of the virus and its effect on your investments and will continue to keep you informed as events unfold. We look forward to keeping in touch with all of you even though we cannot meet with you over the next few weeks.