DA re-invents the lockdown wheel

13 February 2020

Today, the Democratic Alliance played a dangerous game of politics at the expense of the national effort to overcome the coronavirus crisis.  

While South Africa's response to the virus has generally been widely complimented, the DA implies that the expertise it relies on was not available to the President and the National Command Council. 

It is highly improbable that the National Command Council does not have access to the best expertise available.

Bizzarely, at a time of great anxiety about saving lives and salvaging businesses and jobs, the DA's so-called alternative plan presents no alternatives besides gambling with our fragile national unity.

It smacks of an organisation desperately seeking to distinguish itself even at the cost of sowing confusion and division.

It’s so-called “smart interventions” include a variety of measures that the Government has taken several weeks ago, yet they now seek to claim credit for as their own, including:

Roll out of testing, tracking and tracing; 

building up healthcare capacity; 

closing the borders;

increased hygiene capabilities and education initiatives.

Their proposal for a four phase lockdown, which eases from our current hard lockdown (their “phase 4”) through “soft lockdown” to “soft open” and then “open” (their “Phase 1”) is the trajectory we are obviously on. 

We all know that a full lockdown is not socially and economically sustainable in the long term, and it is obvious we need a plan on how to exit the lockdown on 1 May. 

It would be reckless to announce that plan now, given that the situation may change quickly. It is equally unwise for anyone to suggest an imminent easing of the measures at a time when we need absolute compliance.

The DA correctly recognises that South Africans are panicked about the impact of the lockdown on the economy and on business and jobs. But the President has frequently communicated that he, and the National Coronavirus Command Council, share this concern and the state has already implemented economic buffers and stimulus packages to mitigate some of the impact. 

Additional measures have been promised.

We share the DA’s call for an increase in social grants – this is a call that has already been made to the President by child rights activists and economists – and we believe the economic crisis requires us to finally implement a basic income grant and to address our poverty crisis. 

Opposition parties must hold all spheres of government to account for how they are managing the response to this pandemic.  But what the DA did today was cynical and remarkably reckless.

Issued by Brett Herron, Secretary General, GOOD, 13 April 2020