Trending19.01.2022

Good argument to end state of disaster — Ramaphosa

Cyril Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa says there is a “good argument” for ending South Africa’s national state of disaster, SABC News reports.

Ramaphosa’s comments came while speaking at the launch of the new NantSA vaccine manufacturing campus in Brackenfell, Cape Town, on Wednesday.

The president said that the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) was considering whether it should end the state of disaster, given that the infection rate in the country has dropped in recent days.

“There is a good argument to be put forward that now that we are where we are, should we not examine and look at other methods, other instruments that can be utilised?” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa added the government must be rational in everything it does, and it was now considering alternative methods to managing the pandemic.

“People have all the right to advocate for the dropping of the state of disaster instrument,” he stated.

South Africa has been in a national state of disaster for almost two years.

Most recently, the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, extended it until 15 February 2022.

Under the Disaster Management Act, the government has been allowed to introduce emergency regulations without first having to go through Parliament, all in the name of curbing the spread of Covid-19.

That has enabled the government to introduce a curfew, prohibit large gatherings, enforce a mask mandate, implement alcohol and cigarette bans, and put military boots on the ground, among other interventions.

But many of the measures have been shunned by civil society and opposition parties as a show of power.

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma South African Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

In recent months, an escalating number of business leaders and health experts have called for a different approach.

Among them is Wits vaccinology professor Shabir Madhi, who tore into the health department over its backtracking on a decision to scrap contact tracing and quarantine.

In early January, Madhi called for the dissolution of the NCCC, which he accused of a “consistent pattern of decision-making” that appealed to different stakeholders under the pretence of listening to science.

“The current state of Covid does not merit an ongoing state of disaster in South Africa,” Madhi stated.

The state of disaster also faces a legal challenge from the Solidarity Movement, which includes Afriforum.

Shabir Mahdi, Professor of Vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand

Solidarity Movement chair Flip Buys said there was evidence of increased group immunity against Covid-19 in South Africa, which resulted in less severe illness and fewer deaths.

Combined with the growing consensus that Covid-19 has become endemic, a state of disaster is no longer necessary, Solidarity contends.

“The fact that the virus is now endemic means the virus won’t disappear, but we will have to learn to live with the virus,” Buys said.

The latest Covid-19 statistics from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases showed 3,658 new cases reported from a day before.

This is still moderately high when considering the daily increases in cases throughout the pandemic.

In line with Prof Mahdi’s remarks earlier this month, the low number of new deaths — 30 — suggests that many people who were infected already had some form of protection, whether from previous infection, or vaccination, or both.

Now read: Long Covid breakthrough from South African scientists

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