Cabinet extends state of disaster to October

The state of disaster was declared by President Cyril Ramaphosa in March in an attempt to slow down the spread of the deadly coronavirus. 

This allowed the government to implement a lockdown to give it time to adequately prepare the country’s ailing health system for the expected surge in Covid-19 cases. 

This will be the fourth extension. 

“Cabinet also approved the extension of the national state of disaster to 15 October 2020 in terms of Section 27(5)(c) of the Disaster Management Act, 2002 (57 of 2002). This is to continue giving effect to the regulations that remain relevant to manage the spread of COVID-19 infections,” Cabinet said in a statement on Thursday.  

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The extension comes a day after President Ramaphosa hinted at a possible further easing of lockdown regulations. 

Ramaphosa met virtually with the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) on Wednesday evening.  

Ramaphosa told the SANEF members that the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) is evaluating a number of proposals around the further easing of lockdown restrictions in South Africa. 

“Religious leaders have come to us and have asked that we should consider extending the number of people who should be in worship – it should no longer be based on 50 people only in a room, it should be based on 50% of the room,” Ramaphosa said.  

“The sports people have also come, entertainers have also come, the hoteliers, tourism people so we are considering all that as do an evaluation of where the infection rate is so we will be able to give consideration to all these proposals and get advice.  

“Watch this space next week where we end up as a nation in as far as this is concerned.”