The National State of Disaster a cover for government looting and incompetence 

11 February 2021

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes the refusal by President Cyril Ramaphosa to seek Parliamentary approval for the further extension of the national state of disaster.

For almost a year now a single cabinet minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has had the near unrestricted power to make regulations that affect every aspect of South African life.

Instead of creating a temporary means to get an upper hand over the Covid-19 pandemic, the national state of disaster has become a cover for corruption and the abuse of power.

It is behind this cover that economically ruinous regulations have been crafted, billions in Covid-19 relief funds stolen and the procurement of the vaccine bungled.

To lift this cover we have had to go to court over and over again, while the information and explanation which we and the public expect should in fact be tabled and debated in Parliament.

The DA is challenging the constitutionality of section 27 of the Disaster Management Act, the lynchpin of the government’s nearly unrestricted lockdown powers. The matter was in court this week.

While we await the outcome of the case, we requested the President to subject any further extension of the national state of disaster and any further lockdown regulations to debate and approval in Parliament.

His refusal to do so has strengthened our own resolve to fight the government’s arbitrary lockdown powers.

Issued by Cilliers Brink,DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 11 February 2021