DA: Ongoing state of disaster delaying economic recovery
The DA is of the opinion that President Cyril Ramaphosa could have relaxed the Covid-19 regulations even further on Tuesday evening.
Ramaphosa announced a number of new measures that further ease the Covid-19 lockdown regulations, including the dropping of face masks when people are outdoors.
The president also gave an assurance that the two-year long state of disaster will soon come to an end.
DA national spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube says while the party welcomes the changes, it believes that the persisting rules will harm job creation.
“The DA welcomes the scrapping of the outdoor mask-wearing requirement and the announcement that vaccinated travellers will not need a negative PCR test to enter the country.
This will go some way to helping our tourism industry and other cross-border businesses recover. Unfortunately, the changes have come too late for the summer tourism season."
She says the retention of existing limits of 1 000 and 2 000 people at indoor and outdoor events will continue to strangle the events industry.
“These number limits are completely arbitrary and are probably exceeded daily at many of our malls or markets. The concession for venues with vaccinated or PCR negative people to go to half capacity is not enough.
“Full capacity without any PCR or vaccine requirement should be allowed.
"The rules make no sense as the country struggles with record-breaking joblessness, poverty, and rising food prices, but no Covid-19 pressure on our hospitals.”
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