National Liquor Traders: Govt must speed up removal of state of disaster

Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Tuesday evening where he gave an assurance that the two-year-long state of disaster will soon come to an end.

He also announced the easing of a raft of Covid measures.

Health experts have been calling on the government to scrap the national state of disaster, saying the low infection rate means it has outlived its purpose.

But Ramaphosa said the public hearings on the proposed new health regulations need to be completed before the state of disaster can be consigned to the dustbin.

Liquor Traders spokesperson Lucky Ntimane says government needs to move with speed.  

“Liquor traders want to see the national state of disaster removed, not just rhetoric. We welcome the announcement by the president on the talk around the removal of the state of disaster.

“We have always maintained that such an approach had outlived its usefulness and only sought to concentrate power on the President who was treading the thin line of dictatorship and running the country by decree, with no checks and balances provided for in a parliamentary system which the state of disaster by design sought to circumvent.

“The removal of the state of disaster must not just be a talk, it must be followed by action and urgently.”

Ntimane says since the easing of restrictions, there haven’t been any spike in the number of cases reported that could be linked to the use of alcohol.

“This further cements our strong held belief that alcohol plays no role in impacting the number of Covid-19 infections and as such, the government should desist from basing any strategy of fighting Covid-19 with seeking to impose restrictions on alcohol.”

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