Mbalula says ATM just ‘seeking attention’ with charges against him

In a statement on Tuesday, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula hit back at the African Transformation Movement (ATM) after the political party said they intended to lay charges against him for allegedly contravening national lockdown regulations.

He said his department had noted their statement “alleging that we violated the lockdown regulations when we visited the Noord taxi rank on 1 April 2020”, but he dismissed it as posturing from a party trying to “score cheap political points for their 15 minutes of fame”.

“This is a moment when we should all be working together and redoubling our efforts to stop the spread of the virus. Our common commitment to preserve human life must supersede any narrow self-serving interests and give way to the collective interests of the nation.”

He accused the ATM of knowing that he had not convened any rally or mobilised any crowd to convene at the Noord taxi rank in Johannesburg.

“Throughout the lockdown period, both myself and MECs have been on the ground and visited public transport facilities to ensure compliance with regulations and directions. We continue to do this as part of our duties to provide leadership and ensure [the] government message reaches both the public transport operators and those who use the service for essential travel alike.”

He said it was “public record that the sole purpose of my visit to the Noord taxi rank was to monitor the level of compliance to the lockdown regulations and directions and to emphatically communicate the message”.

“We found an unfortunate situation where the number of people at the taxi rank left a lot to be desired. It is for that very reason that I made use of a loudhailer to ensure that every person in the vicinity of the taxi rank heard the message and complied with the rules. As a minister of transport, I am duty bound to ensure that the government message is disseminated by all means possible and enforce the rule of law.”

He called on the ATM leadership to play their part in spreading the message to stay at home, exercise social distancing and only undertake essential travelling, far and wide.

“It is only through collective effort that we can flatten the curve and preserve human life.”

He took exception to any suggestion that he and his department had broken the regulations when “addressing unbecoming conduct”.

“The antics employed the ATM to find relevance are at best attention seeking and at worst deplorable.”

The party had earlier in the day claimed Mbalula had violated lockdown rules in terms of Regulation Gazette No 11062.

WATCH: Mbalula called an April fool as he speaks to hundreds of people at taxi rank

On April 1, Mbalula addressed hundreds of commuters at a time regulations prohibited the gathering of crowds of more than 100, which was later revised to no more than 50.

“Even more concerning was that the minister himself, for a considerable part of his address, together with some of the government officials, also set a bad example by violating physical distancing in full view of millions of television viewers.

“The regulations do not exempt Covid-19 communication, so notwithstanding the content of the briefing, the law was broken.”

The party called on both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Police Minister Bheki Cele to act decisively on the alleged transgression.

“If churches are not allowed to congregate their members, there’s no reason for the minister to break the law in the manner he did. The law must apply equally to all the citizens of South Africa without fear or favour, and we call on Minister Cele to also give this matter his urgent attention.”

(Compiled by Charles Cilliers)

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