President Cyril Ramaphosa. Picture: AFP/Ludovic Marin
President Cyril Ramaphosa is addressing South Africans on the country’s ongoing Covid-19 response.
This as the government deals with mounting calls to do away with the National State of Disaster, following the publication of proposed health regulations meant to replace the lockdown regulations.
Last week, the department of health published the proposed regulations to deal with Covid-19.
Ramaphosa told the National Assembly thereafter that the government had consulted with different stakeholders about the regulations and called for the public’s input following the extension of the National State of Disaster for another month.
He made a promise of moving away from a “harder state of disaster” and said he too would like to see the State of Disaster coming to an end sooner.
Watch the President’s address below, courtesy of the SABC:
“We will move away from the harder State of Disaster regulation to a health one because we are dealing with a pandemic, a pandemic that affects our health,” said Ramaphosa.
“The pandemic is still here with us. Covid-19 has not suddenly just disappeared through the door or the window and we are still concerned about those people who get infected; who get hospitalised and who die.”
Ramaphosa said that South Africa did not need to be reckless in its efforts to move away from the state of disaster, citing that it needed to be done carefully and “orderly”.