The South African arm of RS Components – a company known for providing all manner of hardware for projects in the maker, IOT and industrial sectors – has announced that it has obtained a permit to operate during the country’s lockdown in a bid to supply the essential services sectors with certain important items.

The focus here isn’t on purchasing a new Raspberry Pi for a personal project, however, but instead on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which is being used now not only be medical personal, but also those working in places like grocery stores to ensure their safety while keeping the people of South Africa fed during the lockdown.

“We are investing significantly in those PPE products that we are seeing higher than usual demand for. Those include: Aprons, Disposable Gloves, Hand Cleaners and Soaps, Hand Wipes, Multi-purpose Wipes, Overalls, Reusable Respirators, Reusable Respirator Accessories and Safety Goggles,” RS Components writes in a statement on the matter.

Despite this increased demand the company is confident in its ability to fulfil orders stating that it has a “good depth of inventory” together with close contact with suppliers to keep stock available.

As for the ubiquitous face masks which are in high demand just about everywhere, limited stock is available with more planned to allocated when available. Searching the site for masks only brings up industrial use ones such as full face respirators, and not the surgical masks most are looking for. We assume this will be updated if and when stock comes in.

The full statement from RS Components about its COVID-19 actions can be found here. Essential service workers hoping to contact the company in this regard can phone it at 011-691-9300 or email at sales.za[AT]rs-components[DOT]com.

As with most companies RS Components South Africa will open to the general public again on 17th April when the lockdown ends, barring any extensions mandated by the government.