Twitter has had it with John Steenhuisen

John Steenhuisen has weighed in on the latest developments around Covid-19 regulations as set out by president Cyril Ramaphosa last night.

The latest ‘family meeting’ held on 28 December 2020 saw the president move the country to an adjusted Level 3 lockdown which includes closed beaches, limited numbers in restaurants and an alcohol ban for at least 15 days.

ALSO READ: READ IN FULL: Government publishes adjusted level 3 lockdown regulations

During news broadcaster, ENCA interview with the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) leader he called for government to work on getting the vaccine as a priority as he explained: “this could be the only shot that the country’s economy has on surviving.”

Heavily criticising government’s latest regulations and lack of vaccination, which is only scheduled for roll out in the second quarter of 2021, Steenhuisen also compared South Africa to other countries that had already started rolling out vaccinations in conjunction with lockdown measures.

In his latest interview with Newzroom Afrika which took place on 29 December, he reiterated his setiments made in his ENCA interview about a lockdown rolled out with a vaccine approach instead of a “lockdown only approach” and added: “I would have expected some kind of announcement of a financial relief package to tide them over [hospitality industry] until 15 January without letting their employees go.”

But Twitter was not having it. Steenhuisen’s sentiments were ripped apart by social media users with many arguing that no matter what the ANC does Steenhuisen would oppose it for “the sake of opposing it”.

Here are some reactions:

One thing we can all agree on as a country is that we hate John Steenhuisen (DA leader)

— Phakamani Nxumalo (@phakzy_P) December 29, 2020

John Steenhuisen makes it extremely easy for the ANC to underperform massively without that underperformance costing them fatally. That’s because Steenhuisen thinks the MEANING of opposition is to oppose everything for its own sake. He’s addicted to whining, and being contrarian.

— Eusebius McKaiser (@Eusebius) December 28, 2020

Lmao???????? ole borile to the core John steenhuisen https://t.co/6q18i9TQDh

— ʝบsт༙ ♡Aˢᵃᶰᵗᵉ༙ ❥ (@Asante_Mckay) December 29, 2020

John Steenhuisen so out of touch with so much…..definitely not the type of opposition we need in SA ????

— John thole (@johnthole) December 29, 2020

bro even white people hate John Steenhuisen ????⚰

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— yves replaceable (@tk_jumal) December 29, 2020

There isn’t anything about John Steenhuisen that doesn’t irritate me.

— Gary Hartley (@GaryHartleySA) December 28, 2020

Not all comments were negative as some believed that the opposition leaders made some valid points:

When the commentariat interpret John Steenhuisen asking why the vaccine roll out is being delayed, as ‘whining’, ‘opposing’ or ‘contrarian’, you then know they’re a total lost cause.

Sometimes you should put your hatred aside and listen carefully, kids.

— Joshua Dickinson (@JoshPDickinson) December 29, 2020

If Julius made the exact same statement as John Steenhuisen last night black twitter would’ve applauded him for it. Toxic bias at best

— Mulli Gang (@Vestmotaung) December 29, 2020

People disagree with John Steenhuisen because he is a DA leader, not what he is saying, sadly. Bailing out SAA when we could use money to buy vaccines makes no sense to me. State has given SAA over R50B in the last decade & there is still NO light at the end of the tunnel for SAA

— Lethabo (@CheetahPlains) December 29, 2020

READ NEXT: EXPLAINED: What is adjusted level 3 lockdown?

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