DA site back up after donations avalanche

Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is heartened by the many South Africans who are contributing whatever they can towards our legal challenges against irrational and unconstitutional aspects of the current hard lockdown.

DA leader John Steenhuisen announced on Thursday 14 May that the party would be seeking legal remedy through the courts on irrational measures such as the e-commerce ban (which was dropped within hours of the DA’s court challenge), the 3-hour exercise window and the military-enforced curfew.

Furthermore, we are also challenging the constitutionality of aspects of the Disaster Management Act that concentrate massive law-making powers in the hands of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the Minister of Co-operative Governance, without any oversight from Parliament, and enable her to delegate such powers to other Ministers, who are equally unaccountable. They can extend this power indefinitely.

Already in the past seven weeks, they have issued over 40 sets of regulations, comprising hundreds of pages of new legislation, governing almost every aspect of our lives, from when we may leave our homes and for what purpose, who we may visit, when and where we may exercise, what we may buy and what we may wear – to name a few.

This violation of fundamental rights requires increased and rigorous oversight, not less.

Turning an unaccountable group of Ministers into a law-making machine is also a violation of the separation of powers.

It was for these reasons that we asked South Africans to assist in funding our cases, even with small amounts, and the response was so overwhelming that it overloaded our online donations system. We have since increased capacity on our site to accommodate increased web traffic to our online donations portal for anyone who wishes to donate.

The DA is heartened by this positive response, which will go some way to funding our legal challenges as we continue to fight for a smart lockdown model that limits the spread of Covid while simultaneously protecting livelihoods, preventing hunger and getting South Africans back to work safely.

Crucial questions need answering around lockdown

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes that there is growing and broad agreement on a gradual return to economic activity, and ahead of President Ramaphosa’s address to the nation this evening, the DA respectfully puts forward the following questions, requests, and suggestions which should be addressed in his speech. I have a virtual meeting scheduled with the President for 16:30 today, and I will put these questions to him directly. Furthermore, we have today sent the President updates to our Covid-19 response working paper, as our contribution to the national decision-making process.

1. We request clarity on the alleged statement by Prof Shabir Mahdi (of Wits University, who heads the public health subcommittee advising the President and his cabinet) revising down the expected number of SA Covid deaths to 45 000 over the next 2-3 years, from an earlier estimate of between 120 000 and 150 000 fatalities. This was reported in a TimesLive article on 21 April. We need to understand if this estimate of 45 000 deaths over 2-3 years factors in a series of lockdowns, or is the estimate before interventions. If the latter, then this revision profoundly impacts SA’s optimal response to this pandemic. A death rate of 45 000 over 2-3 years is broadly in line with SA’s current murder rate and Easter road death rate, neither of which have elicited hard lockdowns in response. Therefore, we request clarity around these alleged comments.

2. We request clarity around Prof Salim Karim’s comments reported by Rapport on Sunday, in an interview with Hanlie Retief, in which he said: “I think we’ve already reaped the benefits of the lockdown. I’m not sure how much more the lockdown can help us.” If this is the view of the government’s leading expert on the coronavirus epidemic, it is important that South Africans know how this view is guiding government’s decisions on the future implementation of a lockdown strategy.

3. We request the immediate implementation of a policy of mandatory cloth masks for all, in all public places. At least 3 free cloth masks should be provided free of charge to all those who are unable to afford masks. Assuming 40 million people require free masks, this would be 120 million masks in all, and would cost an estimated R600 million – a mere fraction of the cost to SA of a single day of hard lockdown. This is particularly important for high-density situations like on public transport and in shops, but should be mandatory in all places where people are not able to keep a 1.5 m distance.

4. We suggest that a suppress-release approach on alcohol availability should be used to relieve pressure on hospitals. This could be generalised or localised depending on circumstances.

5. We suggest that all sectors should have, and publish online, a set of social-distancing protocols in place specific to their context, before re-opening. Furthermore, all businesses should be required to complete a workplace risk assessment and mitigation form. This form must be available on the business premises and website. This will inform the public, policy makers, suppliers and customers of the risks inherent to that business and the mitigation measures which the business has put in place to deal with those risks.

6. As the economy opens up public transport will be a central nexus of human interaction. Three criteria are crucial:

  • Everyone on public transport to be masked.
  • Everyone on public transport to sanitize their hands on entrance and exit.
  • Public transport vehicles to be sanitized regularly.

7. We call for the immediate lifting of all activities listed in our attached document.

8. We request transparent, reliable and up-to-date reporting of key Covid-19 response data. In particular, we request national, provincial and area-specific data around cases, testing, hospital load/capacity and implementation of economic stimulus measures. We believe this to be an entirely reasonable request, given the massive sacrifice South Africans are making to slow the spread and minimise the impact of this disease. Only with this information can we know how best to respond.

Assuming that the expected fatality rate for Covid remains far above other reasons for mortality in South Africa, then a Smart Lockdown strategy (locking down only when, where and to the extent necessary, coupled with more targeted interventions – particularly a massive, rapid-response testing programme and free mandatory masks for all in public) is preferable to a series of hard lockdowns over the coming years. Indeed the President has already suggested that SA will be taking the smart lockdown route. A smart lockdown is simply not possible without accurate, up-to-date, localised, transparent data.

The following data should be available daily and to all:

Indicator Currently available? Available at:
Cases
Total cases (national) Yes https://sacoronavirus.co.za/
Total deaths (national) Yes https://sacoronavirus.co.za/
Total recoveries (national) Yes https://sacoronavirus.co.za/
Testing
Total tests (national) Yes https://sacoronavirus.co.za/
Average time between testing and reporting (national) No
Community health worker (CHW) infection rate (national) No
Results of continuous random testing for prevalence and symptoms classified by:
– Age
– Area- HIV status
No
Total testing capacity per day (district/area) No
Total tests performed per day (area/district) by

-Type of test (antigen vs antibody)

-Randomised vs targeted

-CHW or general public

No
Case numbers by area/district

-Daily new cases

-Total cases

-Active cases

-Total recoveries

-Daily deaths

-Total deaths

No
Hospital load/capacity
Total hospital capacity (national)

-Number of beds

-Number of ICU beds

-Number of ventilators

No
Number of patients hospitalised (national)

-All

-Covid-related

No
Number of patients requiring ICU/ventilator (national)

-All

-Covid-related

No
Number of Covid patients by area/district

-Total

-Daily new cases

-Number requiring ICU/ventilator

No
Total hospital capacity and occupancy by area/district

-ICU beds

– Ventilators

-ICU beds used by COVID patients

No
PPE
Total supply of PPE

-PPE per health worker (area/district)

-Cloth masks per person (area/district)

No
Economic support
SMME support (DSBD Debt Relief Fund)

-List of business applying

-List of businesses receiving

-Rand amount loaned per business

-Total Rand amount loaned

No
Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (TERS)

-Number employees receiving relief

-Rand amount of total relief given

-List of businesses that have received relief for employees including Rand amount

No
UIF payments

-Monthly rand amount paid out to the unemployed

-Number of unemployed receiving relief

No
Covid grant payments

-Rand amount paid per month

-Number of recipients paid per month

No
Basic Income Grant payments to the unemployed not on UIF or grants (R350 per month)

-Rand amount paid per month

-Number of recipients paid per month

No
IDC/DTI funding

-Number of firms applying for funding

-Number of firms receiving funding

No
Solidarity fund

-Rand value of assets

-Rand value and details of expenditure

No

DA to obtain legal opinion after Patel’s overreach on amended lockdown regulations on cooked food

Yesterday, I wrote to Trade, Industry and Competition Minister, Ebrahim Patel asking him to furnish me the legal advice he relied on to pronounce that cooked food is not allowed ‘as the law stands’.

In the amended lockdown regulations, there is nothing that prohibits the production or sale of cooked food and thus the Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that the Minister has overstepped his powers by simply pronouncing that retailers may not sell cooked or prepared food.

This absurd determination by Minister Patel is illogical and ill-considered. It follows a pattern of late by certain Ministers which seek to de-legitimise the lockdown by advancing regulations that make no sense and are not found in law.

The latest pronouncement by Government will have detrimental consequences for frontline health care workers, members of the security services, essential service workers and transport workers like truck drivers who rely on cooked food due to the work they are doing.

This will also be particularly devastating for the elderly who may be unable to cook food due to their frailty.

Therefore, the DA has given Minister Patel until 17:00 today to explain in writing what his rationale was to summarily pronounce on the regulations to ban the sale of cooked or prepared food.

At the same time, we are also consulting with our legal team to obtain a legal opinion on the legality of Minister Patel’s actions.

We can not allow Ministers to arbitrarily undermine the lockdown by acting outside of the mandate which is what we are now currently seeing.

DA calls for SAPS deployment to schools across the country following vandalism spike

The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the Department of Basic Education to work closely with the South African Police Service (SAPS) to ensure maximum  visibility of the police at our schools during the Covid-19 lockdown.

This follows the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, confirming that 397 schools have now been vandalised across the country since the lockdown. Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Western Cape and North West are the hardest hit with each having more than 50  schools affected. 

The DA strongly condemns these acts of vandalism.  

There is an urgent need to put preventative measures in place to protect schools from being soft targets for criminals. This is because opportunists and criminals are taking advantage of this lockdown and it is therefore critical that the we have increased police visibility at schools during this time.

The Minister confirmed that the damage at schools have primarily been caused by vandalism and theft. It is also telling that perpetrators have now started to target nutrition centres where food items are stored. It speaks to the increased desperation for food during this lockdown. 

These acts, however, will cause immeasurable damage to the functioning of schools and on the education of learners post the lockdown.  It is, therefore, critically important for Minister Motshekga to engage Police Minister Bheki Cele to find urgent solutions which will enable the SAPS to patrol high-risk schools. 

Here’s what Government should have announced in Amended Lockdown Regulations

Lockdown regulations

The release of the Amended Lockdown Regulations on Thursday was a missed opportunity by Government to ease some of the draconian regulations which have been in place since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown and level with South Africans on the future of the economy.

Government should have used the opportunity to announce the end to some of the illogical limitations on what can be sold in stores that are currently open and to announce the phasing in of critical sectors to get the economy going again.

While the DA supports the lockdown and the need for regulations which will save lives, we must acknowledge that a number of regulations will not necessarily assist in combatting the pandemic; will not make life easier for citizens; nor will it improve our dire economic prospects.

Government had an opportunity to revitalize the economy by re-introducing additional essential workers as many South Africans have not received a salary since the start of the lockdown. This places the country at risk of mass levels of hunger and social discontent.

It was therefore important that Government took the initiative to relax some regulations and make the following announcements, as per the DA’s Smart Lockdown model:

  1. In addition to our call that all goods in stores that are currently permitted to operate should be sold, the DA also proposes that:
    • Cigarette sales should be allowed. The continued ban on cigarettes is illogical, unjustifiable and creating an illicit market worth Billions of rands, as well as a criminal network surrounding it. Cigarette sales will also reignite much-needed revenue into the ficus through taxes on sales.
    • Off consumption retail outlets should be allowed to sell alcohol during the hard lockdown in accordance with a ‘squeeze and release’ model, which is guided by data modeling on testing and transmission rates. In the hard lockdown, this would restrict hours of sale from 10am – 3pm weekdays with a limit on stock to be bought. Further progression of sales is guided by the Smart Lockdown model.
    • Re-open certain outlets such as hardware stores for personal us; stationery, book and electronic stores; and cell phone stores.
    • It is also important that all retail outlets like food stores, pharmacies and hardware stores enable 1 hour of the day specifically for persons aged 60 and above as they are most at risk of infection.
  1. The re-opening of mines are a welcome development, not only for economic activity but also because they provide critical community services (e.g. water, electricity or sanitation) to local communities. The DA does, however, believe that it is critical that strict hygiene and physical distancing protocols are adhered to during mine operations.  We propose the following:
    • Underground communication must be rolled out with the use of “motorbike” style radios in order to reduce close interaction.
    • While respirators would be extremely useful, it is unlikely that these would be available in the quantities required. At the very least, masks must be provided to all workers, and mine management must ensure compliance in wearing them.
    • Where a mine has a confirmed case of Covid-19 where workers may have been exposed, that mine must immediately close its operations for a quarantine period of 14 days.
  1. While we welcome the fact that a number of outlets have been permitted to deliver essential groceries during this lockdown, restaurants and fast-food outlets have been completely overlooked. This is a critical sector jobs sector and the DA proposes that:
    • Any restaurant or fast food outlet should be allowed to open their kitchens through a home delivery service.
    • We have written to the Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, to request that she makes urgent representations to her colleagues on the Executive to amend the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) lockdown regulations in order to include food and grocery delivery services.
  1. Since the lockdown began, according to the Manufacturing Circle, 64% of manufacturers have closed their production and 36% have reduced productive capacity by up to 75%. The net result on job losses will be extreme, with 87% of its membership stating that they would have to assess retrenchment in relation to the impact of the current lockdown. We need to breathe life into the local manufacturing sector and we therefore propose the following interventions:
    • Manufacturing sectors should be opened and limited to the production of PPE, ventilators, medical equipment, maintenance equipment, textiles used for hospital purposes, agri-processing for time-bound products and food security.
    • We need to urgent resume exports of our manufactured goods, both primary and secondary to generate foreign earnings.
    • Transport to and from ports is necessary.
  1. Agriculture is the very lifeblood of our existence. If we fail to protect food security and keep open the agricultural chain of production, we face a national security crisis. The DA is of the view that:
    • The agriculture sector must be allowed to continue as unhindered as possible during the lockdown.
    • Transport of all agricultural goods must be essential, including the transportation of wine.
    • Strict health protocols should be implemented to protect farm workers and those that are in the agriculture value chain.

We urge President Ramaphosa and his Cabinet to assess these proposals as South Africa urgently needs regulations that not only keep the nation safe and healthy but will also assist essential workers, re-introduce critical workers to the economy, increase access to wages and reduce the risk of mass hunger.

Reconsider some lockdown bans, or risk a backlash of non-compliance

The DA welcomes certain aspects of government’s Amended Lockdown Regulations, as announced and published today, but urges government to reconsider certain regulations that do not explicitly help citizens combat the virus. Whilst we support the lockdown, we need regulations that make life easier for citizens, and especially essential workers, to access goods and services and to reduce the risk of mass hunger. The lockdown will only work if it promotes collaboration amongst citizens. Certain regulations do not.

The decision to start opening up some sectors of our economy to allow workers back to work, under strictly controlled conditions, is the right one and in line with our suggestion of a move towards a Smart Lockdown. We welcome the announcement that oil refineries, mines and artisanal trades, among others, have been given the green light to start working again. If conducted according to responsible hygiene and physical distancing standards, where possible, this will give our ailing economy a crucial boost.

But the publication of these amended regulations was also an opportunity for government to rethink some of the overly draconian measures that have been in place these past three weeks, and replace them with some common sense rules. It was an opportunity they missed, and the danger is now that we risk squandering the initial goodwill and support for lockdown compliance.

Some of the regulations around essential goods and services, as well as the blanket ban on cigarettes and alcohol, seem to have less to do with combating the spread of the virus than with stamping down the authority of the state. The same can be said for the ban on neighbourhood watches. The longer these prohibitions remain part of the lockdown regulations, the bigger the chance of a widespread public backlash. Every regulation must be measured against its efficacy in actually defeating Covid19.

Already we are seeing an increased public resistance to some aspects of the lockdown, and incidents of looting have become more widespread over the past week. This will only increase as frustration mounts, and as the economic reality – and hunger – sets in for millions who already live in poverty. South Africans are also increasingly turning to illicit sources of alcohol and cigarettes, and this is costing the state millions in lost tax revenue – money we can ill afford to lose now.

What started out three weeks ago as a movement with massive public buy-in now looks increasingly fragile and fraught with danger of social unrest. If President Ramaphosa and his Cabinet don’t act soon in relaxing some of these prohibitions, he is going to lose the rational centre that has kept this lockdown intact and functioning until now. Once a backlash of non-compliance gains momentum, it will be near impossible to reverse.

We need to keep ordinary South Africans on board if this lockdown is to achieve its goals. And for this to happen, government must treat the public as adults and as partners in this mission. This means reining in the elements of the SANDF and SAPS that are out of control in the streets, and it means relooking the regulations on the prohibition of the sale of certain goods where such prohibition ends up doing more harm than good.

The DA’s proposal for a Smart Lockdown suggests a flexible, sustainable model whereby we can shift up and down between lockdown levels when and where necessary, including by using localised lockdowns. This will maximise our ability to work while still controlling the virus. But it is entirely dependent on a massive testing/tracing/tracking programme so that we are able to keep a close handle on when and where the virus is starting to flare up. Tests must have a 12 to 24 hour turnaround time. No expense or effort must be spared to get this right.

But for any kind of lockdown plan to succeed, it is crucial that we first secure the buy-in and compliance of the public. And this is only possible when they are treated as responsible adults, and respected as citizens.

#FoodCrisis: DA calls on Government to implement these 5 critical measures

Food parcels

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, to recommend five measures Government can implement to address and mitigate the increasing levels of hunger across the country.

Most South Africans, particularly those living in poor communities, have not had an income for the past 20 days due to the Covid-19 lockdown. This means that millions of South Africans are now staring utter desolation and hunger in the face as they are unable to go out and find work to put food on the table.

The DA will, therefore, call on Government to implement the following 5 measures to mitigate the impact of the lockdown on food security and to address the growing levels of hunger across the country:

1. ‘Smart Lockdown”

The DA continues to call on government to consider our Smart Lockdown model urgently and integrate it in their planning to ensure that we save lives and livelihoods during this crisis. The DA’s smart lockdown model would see some sectors of the economy re-opening safely. This will result in a flood of wages and income into poor households which will bring much-needed relief.

2. R 1000 grant top-up for all grant recipients for three months

The DA proposes a R 1000 grant top-up for all grant recipients for three months. For millions of households across the country, a social grant is often the only guaranteed source of income. With the extension of the current lockdown, many homes will be in desperate need of extra cash to put food on the table. An additional R 1000 top-up could possibly be the difference between a family going hungry or not.

3. Re-open SASSA offices 

The DA calls on the Department of Social Development (DSD) to re-open and capacitate SASSA offices across the country in order to process the influx of relief applications. The number of people that have called SASSA’s national call centre for relief rose from 3 000 to 150 000 per day during this lockdown. Due to the current lockdown measures, SASSA does not have enough staff to coordinate food delivery as well as to field, vet and process applications due to the sheer volume of people applying for relief.

4. Re-open soup kitchens

SASSA  is clearly ill-equipped to process and distribute food parcel at the large scale that is required during this pandemic. The DA, therefore, proposes that municipalities, that have the necessary capacity and funding, re-open local soup kitchens in accordance with strict social distancing protocols. This will ease a lot of the pressure on SASSA and will provide meals to distressed households.

5. Investigate corruption 

There have been numerous reports since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown of corruption pertaining to food parcel distribution for electioneering. Recently, we have seen reports of Gauteng DSD officials and some politicians allegedly stealing and unfairly distributing food parcels exclusively in ANC Wards in the Emfuleni Local Municipality. There have been similar reports in the Eastern Cape where ANC officials are allegedly prioritising ANC members for food parcels. The DA condemns this disgusting behaviour and reiterate our call for the Department to probe these allegations and to hold the guilty parties to account.

As the lockdown continues, multitudes find themselves choosing between the risk of suffering from a terrifying virus or suffering from hunger. Already we have seen desperate people looting all over the country. While some were surely common criminals, it is not unreasonable to expect the large majority looted so that they would not have to see family members starve.

Unfortunately, the measures that Government put in place are laughably inadequate and difficult to access. While the provision of social relief during a disaster is ultimately a mandate of the DSD – the management and distribution of this relief is the responsibility of SASSA. However, due to capacity constraints, corruption and a small Social Relief of Distress budget– many local authorities have had to step up and fill the gap left by SASSA.

DA governments:

DA governments across the country who have stepped up and gone above their mandates order to provide much need relief and support to desolate communities during the lockdown.

  • Western Cape Provincial Government: The Western Cape Department of Social Development has taken the decision to re-prioritise a total of R35 million of its budget to provide 20 000 hot meals per day at 92 feeding sites and distribute 50 000 food parcels which will last families of 4/5 for up to a month.
  • City of Cape Town: Following SASSA’s failure to pitch to deliver food parcels in Mitchells Plain on Tuesday, the Metro’s social development unit stepped in to provide food parcels.
  • George Municipality: The municipality is running 136 soup kitchens per day and has instituted donation drop off centres in accordance with Covid-19 measures, with donations going straight to soup kitchens.
  • Drakenstein Municipality: Existing soup kitchens continue to operate to provide food to the poor.
  • Garden Route District Municipality: The municipality has availed R 500 000 in funds for food parcels.
  • Hessequa Local Municipality: The municipality has availed R 100 000 in funds for food parcels
  • Modimolle-Mookgophong and Kouga Municipalities: The mayors of these municipalities have engaged with local businesses to source hundred thousands of Rands in donations for food parcels.

DA-led governments across the board have partnered with local NGO’s, organisations, private donors, farmers and businesses to ensure food relief flows to the most vulnerable communities. The DA commends these governments, who have stepped up to provide much-needed relief to communities in need. We urge the DSD and Government to consider our proposals in order to avoid mass food insecurity across the nation.

DA launches online platform to link Government and local manufacturers to source critical protective gear for health work

Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched an online service to link local manufacturers that produce personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and other much-needed resources, with national and provincial governments in an attempt to resource South Africa’s healthcare facilities with life-saving equipment.

Several reports today not only indicate chronic shortages of PPE, but also other essential resources such as testing and screening equipment across the country for our frontline health professionals. We have heard countless accounts of nurses, doctors and those who are working to test and treat Covid-19 patients having been left to fend for themselves in some areas due to the global shortage of material to manufacture PPE.

Examples of this include employees of Livingston Hospital, which is one of the two key testing and treatment sites in the Eastern Cape, downing tools due to the shortage of PPE. The Gauteng Health Department has, upon realization of the crisis, called for donations of PPE to their health facilities. This is because various facilities in the province do not have the basics such as gloves, masks, sanitizers and protective gowns. In addition, KwaZulu-Natal which has the 3rd highest number of infections and the most number of fatalities is hit hard by the shortages of PPE for critical frontline staff.

In the spirit of working together with the Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize, in the valiant fight against this pandemic, the DA wrote to him last week to make proposals for dealing with this catastrophic shortage. One of the key proposals was for the department to develop local manufacturing capacity for these critical products. We called on the Minister and his team to bring together manufacturing companies and give them the brief on the products that are most needed, have these approved by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and roll them out to provinces and facilities that need it most.

Already, the DA has secured through the DTI a zero duty rating on masks being imported into the country which is a welcome development. However this needs to be extended across more PPE lines. This will allow Government to import these goods to fill the immediate gap that currently exists while local suppliers are able to build up stock.

The Party has received thousands of offers from local manufacturers, distributors and suppliers of this equipment who are willing to work with the South African government to deal with this local shortage, and have requested ways in which they can be in touch with the Departments of Trade and Industry and Health in order to supply this much needed equipment.

What is becoming clearer each day is that there seems to be little coordination between Government departments in procuring this life saving equipment. That is why the DA has come forward with this online platform to gather information from potential manufactures and then make this information available to various governments, including the DA-run Western Cape Provincial Government.

Government’s response to this pandemic has largely been commendable, however, if we are to beat Covid-19 then we need to make sure that we protect our front-line staff in process. They are our greatest resource. That is why the DA is playing its part in these efforts to ensure that we make a contribution in this regard. The DA will once again write to the Minister of Health and his Director General to bring this platform to their attention. When South Africans from all sectors pull together in fighting this pandemic, it is only then that we will win.

The DA calls on all eligible manufacturers to contact us on the following website: https://www.da.org.za/supply-critical-goods.

Parliament is shirking its oversight responsibility during the lockdown

A response from National Assembly Deputy Speaker, Lechesa Tsenoli, to my letter requesting the establishment of an ad hoc committee demonstrates a gravely worrying suppression of oversight and the gagging of parliament during the Covid-19 lockdown.

In his refusal to establish the committee, Mr Tsenoli states that my request is “so broad and of such a nature that it would not be feasible to expect a single ad hoc committee to perform”, further stating that the work “must be done by all existing parliamentary committees and Members of Parliament”.

What Mr Tsenoli fails to realise is that the National Disaster declaration, and the subsequent lockdown, have led to the establishment of a National Command Council creating a unique scenario in which wings of government are rolling out programmes which are out of the ordinary and thus cannot be effectively held to account by Parliament’s existing committees.

In its oversight role, Parliament is supposed to mirror government in order to exercise oversight comprehensively. Because the structure of government has adapted to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak, so must Parliament adapt its oversight capacity to oversee it. This is precisely why I have called for the establishment of an ad hoc committee.

Furthermore, Mr Tsenoli’s statement that “Parliament was using information and communication technologies for parliamentary committees and members to effectively continue to engage in their oversight and monitoring role” is worryingly misleading. Not one member of the DA’s Shadow Cabinet has received any such correspondence from Parliament’s standing committee chairpersons.

Parliament also has a pressing responsibility to help prepare South Africa for the realities of a post-Covid-19 world. We need an urgent economic recovery plan which parliamentarians have a duty to flesh out during this time.

Following Mr Tsenoli’s directive, every member of my Shadow Cabinet will be writing to their respective committee chairpersons requesting for committees to be urgently convened via videoconference during the lockdown period.

Considering the numerous acts of police brutality and the rising number of deaths allegedly at the hands of police officers during the lockdown, oversight over the executive has never been more crucial in our country.

Essentially, Parliament has been rendered obsolete by refusing to adapt to the changing government during this time and the changing circumstances surrounding its work. Mr Tsenoli’s failure to ensure oversight in this regard is a worrying manipulation of democratic processes which demands immediate attention.

It is incomprehensible that at the time of our nation’s greatest crisis, parliament remains disengaged from what is going on in our country and is not being utilised to prepare South Africa for the changing environment in a post-Covid-19 world.

DA calls for unbanning of all ‘non-essential’ goods in retail stores that are currently trading

Please click here for a soundbite by Dean Macpherson MP, the DA Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls for an end to arbitrary limitations on what can be sold in stores that are open during the lockdown. The confusion around what are considered “essential items” in grocery stores, pharmacies and the like, is unhelpful and should be ended.

I will write to Minister Ebrahim Patel and request him to recommend for gazetting that all stores that are open during the lockdown to be able to sell anything that is normally in their stores.

It is illogical and makes no sense for instance that a store at a petrol station is not allowed to sell pies or that a grocery store is not allowed to sell prepared, warm food. We have seen even more ridiculous examples of this in this week of lockdown such as retail stores closing their magazines and snacks shelves and mothers of new born babies not being able to buy clothes for their babies.

Across South Africa, law enforcement officials are often being allowed sole discretion to interpret these regulations as they see fit which is having huge consequences for many people, from urban to rural settings.

Any item, from hygiene products to electronics, found in a retailer that is allowed to be open should be available for sale to consumers. Once existing stock is sold out, then these items won’t be replenished until after the lockdown.

The bottom line is, that any good found in a store, that is already open under current regulations, should be allowed for sale.

This does not include the sale of liquor which is prohibited during this time in terms of Section 27,(2)i of the Disaster Management Act of 2002. The DA supports this regulations as we believe alcohol sales could encourage people to make irresponsible decisions or to congregate in social groups, both if which we want to avoid during the lockdown.

We do not believe the same rationale can be applied to cigarettes and the DA therefore includes cigarettes in our call for all goods currently in stores, open to the public, to be for sale.

It appears on the face of it that there is no obstacle in law to allowing citizens the free choice to buy whatever they may find in store.

These arbitrary restrictions are also incredibly damaging for big retailers to spaza shops who are being forced to sit on stock they can not sell in an already challenging economic time.

Nine days into South Africa’s lockdown, it is time that we start thinking clearly and rationally about the plethora of regulations that our people are subject to and that we start simplifying them in the best interest of South Africans and our economy.