Ramaphosa’s New COVID-19 Restrictions Are ‘Disappointing’
Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, has announced a further relaxation of the level 1 lockdown restrictions, stating that masks would no longer be required outdoors and that venues could take in more patrons if they were vaccinated or produced negative PCR tests.
He also stated that funerals would be limited to 200 people rather than the previous 100. Wits University’s vaccinologist professor Shabir Madhi, who spoke to broadcaster eNCA, was among those who criticized Ramaphosa’s speech, saying he was “unfortunately hugely disappointed.”
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He claimed that the mask-wearing mandate should have been lifted six months ago, and that the current restrictions and regulations were illogical, irrational, and inconsistent. He claimed that the president had once again squandered an opportunity “to break from the past because we are in a different phase of the pandemic.”
He stated that the government should prioritize vaccine coverage of more than 90% for those aged 50 and up, as the majority of the younger population was no longer susceptible to severe disease and death due to Covid-19.
“The goal is no longer to prevent infection, it is about reducing the burden of severe disease and death. All of these regulations have failed dismally at preventing infections,” he said.
Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, expressed exhaustion following the president’s speech. “I am tired of restrictions. I look forward to walking without a mask and enjoying football at the stadium, as I am vaccinated. I understand the frustration on restrictions (mask inside, PCR to enter South Africa, really after our travel industry suffered?), but better to be careful than sorry.”
I am tired of restrictions. I look forward to walking without a mask & enjoy football at the stadium, as I am vaccinated. I understand the frustration on restrictions (mask inside, PCR to enter SA, really after our travel industry suffered?), but better to be careful than sorry.
— Tulio de Oliveira (@Tuliodna) March 22, 2022
The Black Business Council’s chief executive, Kganki Matabane, welcomed the relaxation of restrictions but urged the government to read the room because most people in rural and township areas had already exited the State of Disaster.
“The more these restrictions continue, we run the risk of people ending them themselves. People in the townships and rural areas have decided we are tired of this lockdown and we will continue with our lives.
“The advisors would have seen long time ago that these masks have been rendered irrelevant,” he said.
Matabane said as business, they had hoped the president would end the restrictions “totally”.
“We are of the view that small business is at the centre of our economic recovery.
“People should be able to reopen fully so that we can develop jobs in the small business space,” he said, adding that they were confused by how stadiums would be able to control the issue of vaccinated and or spectators with negative PCR tests for sports viewing.
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Cilliers Brink, a DA spokesperson, said the party was prepared to challenge the government’s efforts to make the Covid-19 regulations permanent law through the proposed health regulations if the State of Disaster ended.
“Now it will be in permanent law – it assumes Covid-19 is permanent, that cannot be an arrangement put in place as a response to this.
“Up to 80% of the population has survived or vaccinated, there is no basis to say let’s continue.
“So our attorneys have been instructed to monitor the process very closely. We will challenge it if they make it permanent,” he said.
The new regulations, according to Mmusi Maimane of the One South Africa Movement, would be unenforceable and complicated. “Just watched Cyril. Should have been an SMS, not a live TV address. Take away: current regulations are complicated and unenforceable.
“They must just scrap the State of Disaster and get on with living amid what is now an ordinary virus,” he wrote on Facebook.
IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said it was time to grow the economy and drag thousands out of poverty.
“We also welcome the fact that steps are being taken to take the country out of the state of disaster.
“We fundamentally believe that the country has turned the corner and we will now need to focus on the greatest responsibility of growing the economy, creating jobs and taking people out of poverty,” he said.
In his speech, Ramaphosa stated that the pandemic and the previous two years had shaped the way South Africans lived and had shattered the economy. “We are now ready to enter a new phase after four waves of infections, fewer people becoming ill.
“Our scientists tell us 60 – 80% have some form of immunity to the virus through exposure and vaccination,” he said.
“ We intend to lift the State of Disaster as soon as public comment on new health regulations has been completed. It will replace the State of Disaster as the new instrument.
“The end of the disaster does not mean the end of the pandemic, it just means we are changing the way we manage the pandemic.
“We will be relying on health regulations and not disaster regulations.
“It means we are returning to the lives we lived before the pandemic, we are resuming the cultural and social activities we have missed in the past two years,” Ramaphosa said.
