The state of disaster is hurting the poor and causing job losses

The state of disaster is harming jobs and increasing poverty while providing no benefit at all. It must end immediately.

In his State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa promised it would end soon. But minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma this week carelessly extended it until April 15 without providing a satisfactory reason for doing so.

The state of disaster allows government ministers – the cabinet – to impose a range of restrictions on South Africans. These restrictions do not make sense and are harming our tourism and events industry and hampering the ability of government departments to deliver services to people.

SA faces a poverty, jobs and food price crisis. The state of disaster is the biggest blockage to economic recovery. The single most important thing we can do to get the economy growing is to end it.  

Experts like Prof Schabir Madhi are clear that right now there is no epidemic. Our hospitals are not full of Covid-19 patients, so there is no health system to protect. Many people are simply ignoring many of the rules because they know the risks right now are low. Many shrug their shoulders and say, who cares if the state of disaster is extended? We must care because it is hurting the poor.

In places like Mexico, international tourist arrivals are back to normal. But in SA, international arrivals are only at around 20% of what they used to be. This is a big worry because tourism, especially international tourism, used to provide 10% of our jobs.

What’s the difference between Mexico and SA? In Mexico, there are no Covid-19 requirements to enter the country. SA still requires expensive PCR tests, because Dlamini-Zuma says so.

Government and formal employers are still, by law, applying the social distancing and work-from-home requirements. Government and other offices still seem to be operating with reduced staff. The result is that ordinary people have to suffer long queues to get services, in places like home affairs, or banks. Because Dlamini-Zuma says so.

The Soweto Derby took place in front of any empty stadium. Think about what that means for all the formal and informal traders linked to events like that, including hawkers, taxis and the sport itself. Around the world, large sporting events are taking place in front of full stadiums. But in SA full stadiums are not allowed because Dlamini-Zuma says so.

The state of disaster is why students like those at UKZN were forced to register online only, even though some had problems which needed help. It is why tertiary institutions are still operating a hybrid model, badly affecting poorer students who can’t go online easily. Because Dlamini-Zuma says so.

Many countries, even at the height of the pandemic, have been careful about imposing masks on younger children, who are still learning emotions and language. How is a grade 4 learner who has been learning in isiZulu or Sesotho supposed to manage the switch to English as a language of teaching and learning when everybody is wearing masks in schools and they can’t hear the words properly or see the teacher’s mouth move? Minister Dlamini-Zuma, do you have an answer?

We don’t have a Covid-19 epidemic right now. What we do have is extremely high job losses, months of lost education to make up, rising food and fuel and electricity prices, and rising poverty.

The best way to start the recovery is to end the state of disaster. But Dlamini-Zuma doesn’t want to do that, because she wants to make some restrictions permanent. She wants to permanently hold us back as a nation. If the government hadn’t faced court action by the DA, many children would still only be going to school every second week with rotational schooling.

It is time for the state of disaster to go. Poor people cannot afford to wait any longer.

It is time for the cabinet to go too. The endless state of disaster under its watch is just one of the reasons why the DA is bringing a motion of no confidence against cabinet in parliament.

It is a cabinet of poverty.

• Steenhuisen is DA federal leader