Durban Chamber of Commerce calls on President to declare a State of Emergency

The Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s President, Nigel Ward, has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare a State of Emergency in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

In a statement issued on the Chamber’s Facebook page at about 19.00 yesterday (July 13), he said the reason for this was because the ‘disorderly behaviour continues to spiral out of control.’

“Recent behaviour has had a negative impact on business, the economy and threatened innocent lives. With the Covid-19 pandemic currently ravaging the nation and numbers of infections on the rise, this unprecedented conduct puts further strain to businesses already suffering consequences of the virus and will further delay the recovery process, ” said Ward.

He commended officers who have made 757 arrests thus far in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

The statement further reads: “However, at present the police are not visible, businesses are still being looted as we speak, the SANDF that was deployed has not been seen in our communities. Businesses are still being looted and set alight the situation is now completely out of control.

“We cannot waste any more time as law enforcement is not coping with the current situation. As organised business we have been calling for the President to act and deploy more SANDF to assist our law enforcement agencies in a situation that is beyond their means.

“The only solution to arrest the problem at hand is for the President to declare a State of emergency and have heavy presence of all security and law enforcement agencies visible.”