Tebogo Msimanga |
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling on the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to appear before Parliament to explain her decision of Friday, 14 January, to extend the Covid-19 national state of disaster for yet another month.
DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Cilliers Brink said Minister Dlamini-Zuma has now extended this declaration 21 consecutive times in the past two years without any account to Parliament or the South African people, and without any apparent concern for what this is doing to the constitution and the economic prospects of ordinary South Africans.
“In essence, the minister claims that the government cannot deal with the Covid-19 pandemic under ordinary laws. If this claim was true at the outbreak of Covid-19, when the pandemic posed a serious risk to the health system, it is no longer true today.”
Cilliers asked why, after nearly two years under a national state of disaster, has the government not devised alternative laws and policies to deal with health-related disasters?
The DA does not believe that South Africa can prosper with the sword of another lockdown hanging over ‘our’ heads.
