Many Western Cape businesses freeze non-essential changes in the final week of the month. That habit protects billing systems—and it also piles deferred security patches onto the first quiet Monday afterward.
Plan the freeze with an exception lane for critical security updates that vendors rate as actively exploited. Document who can approve those exceptions after hours so the freeze is not an absolute wall.
Stage non-critical updates in a pilot ring during the freeze rather than blocking downloads entirely. Devices can prefetch while users continue working, then install when the freeze lifts.
After three freeze cycles, review the backlog length. If the first week of every month becomes an emergency patch marathon, the freeze policy—not the vendors—is driving the vulnerability window.