CAPE TOWN -
South African gyms have been closed since the start of the national lockdown and the industry now faces a significant number of job losses.
Industry leaders Virgin Active and Planet Fitness froze their membership to stop monthly debit orders from members and FitSA’s Grant Austin said close to 29 000 jobs are at risk due to the closure.
“Gyms are quite a special environment. We are used to sanitising, we have access control and we can screen out people that are high-risk,” said Austin.
“Under 5% of our members are over 65. As an industry, we have also developed system protocols and it is easy to social distance – we just take equipment out of the gym,” he said.
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