Africa-Press – South-Africa. The DA is heading to court to stop the government from “glibly” extending the National State of Disaster month after month.
On Thursday, DA leader John Steenhuisen announced the move following the national government’s decision to extend the state of disaster.
He said:
According to Steenhuisen, when the government moves lockdown regulations into permanent legislation, the DA will mount a legal challenge to those too.
“The lockdown is not in South Africa’s best interest. On the contrary, it is pushing more and more people into joblessness and deeper into poverty,” he said.
The National State of Disaster was first declared nearly 24 months ago, at the end of March 2020.
While the National State of Disaster was initially set to lapse on 15 June 2020, legislation provided that it could be extended by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma by notice in the Government Gazette for one month at a time.
Government extends National State of Disaster again
Experts and scientists expected the state of disaster to expire on Wednesday.
Dlamini-Zuma’s announcement came after a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) on Monday.
NCCC members’ deliberations on alternative regulations were understood to have been inconclusive.
Previously, Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said the government’s plan to end the state of disaster was being hampered by concern over, among other things, the suspension of alcohol bans and curfews should there be another wave of Covid-19 infections.
Steenhuisen said the “real” disaster facing South Africa was a growing poverty and jobs crisis.
“This crisis poses a far higher risk to national well-being and is causing far more human suffering than Covid is. As a nation, we must get better at assessing and balancing risks. [The] government’s overcaution on Covid is exacting a profound human toll, measured in joblessness, hunger, desperation and despair. This is the human toll that we must balance against the Covid risk, a risk which has [been] extremely low for some time now,” he said.
Steenhuisen also said Covid-19 should be managed like other diseases, such as HIV, TB, cancer, and maternal mortality.
“If needed, the state of disaster and the lockdown can always be reinstated if the situation genuinely demands it. We all already know how swiftly this can happen. There is also no need to move lockdown restrictions into permanent legislation. As I said, if the Covid risk goes up, the state of disaster can always be reinstated. The only permanent Covid-related regulations that need to be in place are those enabling the Social Relief of Distress grant to continue to be paid,” he said.
Steenhuisen said if President Cyril Ramaphosa failed to instruct his “poverty Cabinet to end both, we will see him in court”.
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