PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that South Africa’s state of disaster will be lifted once other measures to regulate and manage the Covid-19 response are finalised.
In his state of the nation address on Thursday evening, Ramaphosa said that the end to the state of disaster will be finalised once new regulations outside of the Disaster Management Act is finalised.
No specific timeline for ending the state of disaster was given.
He noted that South Africa has now lifted nearly all economic and social restrictions, and that the country was now entering a ‘new phase of the pandemic’.
“Our approach has been informed throughout by the best available scientific evidence, and we have stood out both for the quality of our scientists and for their involvement in every step of our response.
“We are now ready to enter a new phase in our management of the pandemic. It is my intention to end the national state of disaster as soon as we have finalised other measures under the National Health Act and other legislation to contain the pandemic.”
The state of disaster is currently set to expire on 15 February 2022. This would make it the 22nd month under the state of disaster since it was declared at the end of March 2020, and the 20th extension of the regulations after their first end date of June 2020.
While the national state of disaster was initially set to lapse on 15 June 2020, the act provides that it can be extended by the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister by notice in the gazette for one month at a time before it lapses.
The government has relied on the regulations to introduce and give effect to lockdown restrictions, which it has used to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, it has also faced criticism for giving national government wide-ranging powers over the lives of citizens, with few limits and little to no oversight from parliament.
Health minister Joe Phaahla has previously said a team comprised of members from the Department of Health, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and the Department of Justice have been tasked with developing the possible proposals – which are largely expected to be introduced under the Health Act.
- * BusinessTech
