Tshwane mayor joins chorus for calls to relax Covid regulations
Local street vendor believes that lifting the national state of disaster will allow him to fully return to business.
The Tshwane mayor has added his voice to calls that the national state of disaster be lifted as Covid-19 cases plateaued.
In a statement, Randall Williams said lifting the state of disaster would revive the country’s economy.
“Live events and stadiums must be fully opened to allow these sectors to economically recover from the devastating impact of continued government regulations.
“Another industry that continues to suffer from current regulations is the tourism sector,” Williams said.
“The national government should be making it easier for fully vaccinated travellers to enter our country to enable the recovery of the tourism sector.
“Tshwane is also affected as we have impressive tourism offerings of our own,” he said.
He added that Tshwane residents needed to see progress in their city’s economic recovery with no hindering Covid-19 restrictions.
“The current mask mandate should also be reviewed, especially for the outdoors, as many countries and cities with good vaccination rates have dropped this mandate,” Williams said.
Speaking to Rekord, a mother of two from Mamelodi, Sophy Metiso said she lost her job last year as a result of Covid-19 retrenchments.
“I haven’t found another job and I haven’t been receiving the Covid-19 relief grant consistently.
“I live with my fiancé and my children, I need to take care of my family and take my kids to school,” said Metiso.
Even though Metiso has her matric qualification and experience in cashiering, finding a job remains very difficult.
“I am currently submitting my CVs wherever I can and I hope I find a job soon.”
In a separate statement, DA leader John Steenhuisen said the party wanted an end to all Covid-19 restrictions because “they are doing more harm than good by restricting South Africa’s social and economic recovery”.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, thousands of livelihoods have been destroyed, millions of school and university days have been missed, and billions of rands have been lost to tax revenue, which could have gone to poverty relief. It is time to focus all of our energies on regaining what has been lost.
“Like other countries, masks should only be mandated in high-risk contexts, such as oncology wards,” Steenhuisen said.
“It is time to treat Covid-19 in the same way as we treat other health risks, such as HIV, TB, cancer and maternal mortality.”
Like the EFF, the DA also called for the opening of stadiums to fans.
Department of Health spokesperson, Foster Mohale said they would meet the cabinet this week, but the final decision to end the state disaster would remain the cabinet’s responsibility.
Last week, health minister Joe Phaahla said the department was hard at work revising its regulations.
Amid talks of changes, Phaahla cautioned that Covid-19 was not yet over.
He said communities must avoid reversing the “hard-earned gains we have made as we strive to end the pandemic”.
He concluded by saying he was disappointed that the rate of infections was not declining steadily as anticipated.
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