IRR objects to yet another extension of the State of Disaster
16 November 2021
Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s extension of the National State of Disaster to 15 December 2021 is harmful and contrary to the facts.
For the past month, South Africa’s Covid deaths have been ten times less than they were during the second wave, currently averaging 0.6 deaths per day per million people.
This is in contrast to the 6+ deaths per day per million people during the second wave. As the graph below illustrates, South Africa currently has the lowest Covid death and case numbers on record since the peak of the first wave.
These facts demonstrate that, against the backdrop of critical Covid-19 threats in the past, extending the State of Disaster is not compatible with the current situation. Indeed, Stats SA data show that overall deaths (not due to Covid) in the last month are currently two orders of magnitude greater than Covid-19 deaths. Attention to these deaths on the part of national legislators is being sidelined by the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) and other “Disaster” deviations from constitutional normalcy.