Ramaphosa to address SA soon on managing Covid-19 once state of disaster is lifted

President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation soon to outline how the country will manage the Covid-19 pandemic once the national state of disaster is lifted.

“I am not going to be reckless. I am going to be orderly and in days I am going to address the nation and explain precisely where we are headed and how we should traverse this new route we are going on,” he said during a National Assembly sitting on Thursday.

Ramaphosa said the regulations had been published and government was engaged in several processes with various leaders..

The president was referring to a process in which government is seeking public comment and opinion on how to handle the pandemic once the national state of disaster is removed.

TimesLIVE reported on Wednesday that the national health department, in the government gazette, called for “meaningful input into the decision-making process” from members of the public.

The public has until April 15 to submit comments.

Answering a question from DA leader John Steenhuisen about the national state of disaster, Ramaphosa reiterated the government’s commitment to end it after two years. However, he said: “There are certain measures we will need to keep under management to enable us to keep tabs on the pandemic.”

Ramaphosa said the pandemic had not suddenly disappeared “out of the window”.

“We are concerned about people who get infected, hospitalised and die. We are concerned about people who have not been vaccinated yet.

“All that needs to be properly managed. I said we are now going to have to rely on health measures, for instance, that will say if you are in an enclosed area where there is no proper ventilation, you are still required to wear a mask.

“You cannot breathe that into existence. You’ve got to regulate it and have to regulate it by a legal instrument.”

He said government would move away from the harder state of disaster regulations to health measures “because we are dealing with a health pandemic”.

“If you have a problem with that, I am sorry. We are government, so we have to put regulations in place. As the opposition you have a different view, but you are not government.

“You are entitled to differ, even with scientists, but we have been guided by those scientists and you can shout as much as you like. We as government act in the interests of South Africans.”

Responding to EFF leader Julius Malema who told Ramaphosa “by closing stadiums, you are killing jobs”, the president said  the countries that have opened their stadiums to 100% participation have vaccination levels of 70% to 80%.

“I have been saying as leaders, let us participate in encouraging our people to vaccinate. I am yet to see or hear leaders in the opposition benches talking about vaccination and going on the ground to tell people to get vaccinated.”

Instead, Ramaphosa said, opposition leaders criticise vaccination.

“We’ve done everything to manage this pandemic. The interests of our people when it comes to their lives and livelihoods has been my greatest preoccupation for the better part of the past two years.”

Ramaphosa said the government was embarking on a process that it hopes will boost the slow uptake of vaccinations. 

TimesLIVE