Africa-Press – South-Africa. CAPE TOWN – South Africans on Twitter are advocating for an end to the nationwide curfew for New Year’s Eve so that they may usher in 2022 at church.
The overwhelming call by South Africans using the #NoCurfewOnNewYearsEve is to cross over into the new year “in the presence of the Lord”.
“This year we don’t want to hear that churches will be closed while taverns, clubs will be operating. We want to enter 2022 in the presence of the Lord,” a Twitter user said, addressing President Cyril Ramaphosa.
#NoCurfewOnNewYearsEve@CyrilRamaphosa This year we don’t want to hear that churches will be closed, while tarvens, clubs will be operating. We want to enter 2022 in the presence of the Lord
“We do not want to start the year sitting in our own house. We want to start the year in the house of God. Curfew should not be there at all,” said another.
#NoCurfewOnNewYearsEve
We do not want to start the year sitting in our own house. We want to start the year in the house of God. Curfew should not be there at all.
The trending hashtag has also come with some Twitter users changing their display picture with the words “We reject New Year’s Eve curfew”.
#NoCurfewOnNewYearsEve@CyrilRamaphosa as Christians we have a freedom to worship our God anytime, anywhere and always, we do not want to be restricted by anything this New Year Eve. pic.twitter.com/PckWYQBJni
Despite the proliferation of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, South Africa remains on adjusted alert level 1 lockdown as per the announcement by the National Coronavirus Command Council on December 16.
This means that on major holidays such as Christmas and New Year’s Eve, each person in South Africa is still required to be “confined to his or her place of residence” from midnight until 4am, according to the Disaster Management Act.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ (NICD) weekly epidemiology brief released on Wednesday revealed a decrease of more than 20% in new Covid-19 cases in week 50 compared with week 49, with the majority of cases coming from Gauteng.
Last year, France had an 8pm curfew on New Year’s Eve. Those in the UK were required to stay at home, Germany was still under lockdown, Italy had a 10pm curfew imposed and cities in India also had a night curfew, the BBC reported at the time.
The UK currently does not have a curfew in place. However, proof of vaccination is required at nightclubs, indoor venues with more than 500 people and any venue with more than 10,000 people.
Reuters reported in June that France had lifted its Covid-19 curfew.
There is an 11pm curfew in Italy for its “yellow zones”, though not all regions remain yellow, with some declared white, CNN reported last Friday.
“White zones are almost back to normal, qualifying as extremely low risk,” CNN wrote.
Meanwhile, in parts of Germany, a curfew is in place for unvaccinated people.
IOL
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