Africa-Press – South-Africa. The government has extended the National State of Disaster by a further month, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has announced.
The current state of disaster was set to expire on Wednesday.
In a statement on Tuesday, Dlamini-Zuma announced that the National State of Disaster will expire on 15 April.
She said the decision was taken so that government and organs of state had enough time to “continue augmenting the existing legislation and contingency arrangements” to ensure that new legislation was in place for the continued management of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic after the termination of the state of disaster.
Dlamini-Zuma’s announcement comes after a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council on Monday. NCCC members’ deliberations on alternative regulations is understood to have been inconclusive.
Last week, Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said the government’s plans to end the state of disaster were being hampered by concern over, among other things, the suspension of alcohol bans and curfews should there be another wave of Covid-19 infections.
Govt plan to end state of disaster hampered by fears of another Covid-19 wave
The state of disaster was first declared 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 the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister by notice in the Government Gazette for one month at a time.
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