{"id":388531,"date":"2020-04-09T10:05:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T08:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=388531"},"modified":"2020-04-09T10:12:09","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T08:12:09","slug":"what-south-africans-want-reviewed-during-lockdown-including-a-5-day-breather-if-extended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/388531\/what-south-africans-want-reviewed-during-lockdown-including-a-5-day-breather-if-extended\/","title":{"rendered":"What South Africans want reviewed during lockdown &#8211; including a &#8216;5-day breather&#8217; if extended"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As South Africa approaches two-weeks of a three-week lockdown period, questions have been raised about whether it should be extended.<\/p>\n<p>Local cases of Covid-19 coronavirus climbed by 96 to 1,845 on Wednesday (8 April) \u2013 the biggest daily increase since March.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Health also reported five new Covid-19 related deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 18.<\/p>\n<p>A report has suggested that new infections in South Africa could only peak in June, which would likely lead to a lockdown extension.<\/p>\n<p>Economists have warned however, that South Africa cannot afford an extended shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa took to social media to ask South Africans if they think the country&#8217;s lockdown regulations are effective and how they should change.<\/p>\n<p>In a post published on Twitter on Wednesday (8 April), Holomisa asked his followers if any of the countries lockdown regulations should be reviewed, and asked them to explain why.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the suggestions included the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A five-day &#8216;breather&#8217; at the end of the current lockdown period before extending it further;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Relaxing the list of &#8216;essential goods&#8217; which may be purchased to allow for the purchasing of baby clothes and other basic items;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Removing the prohibition on cigarettes and alcohol as it is encouraging illicit (organised crime) trade;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Allowing essential businesses to sell non-essential goods;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Allowing restaurants to trade through takeaways and food delivery services such as Uber Eats;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Forcing all places that use fingerprint biometric access control to properly sanitise fingers and readers before and after scanning;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Politicians, especially members of parliament, should donate at least 50% of their salary to the needy and the poor;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Keeping the alcohol ban in place;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A partial lifting of the lockdown in some areas of the country;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Broadening of the definition of &#8220;essential workers&#8221; and those that are allowed to work;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Relaxing of rules in estates\/complexes;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Government-mandated payment holidays from banks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SAReviewOfLockdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SAReviewOfLockdown<\/a> . We are past the halfway mark of the 21-day lockdown period and the government is busy reviewing the effectiveness of the lockdown in preventing the spread of Covid-19. Which regulations do u think should be reviewed and why? As leaders we might be consulted<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bantu Holomisa (@BantuHolomisa) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BantuHolomisa\/status\/1247944227180470273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 8, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>What the numbers show<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s latest coronavirus figures showed that the country is still relatively early in its spread and has time to &#8216;flatten the curve&#8217;, said World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/covid-19-who-says-sa-can-flatten-curve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">eNCA<\/a> <\/strong>on Wednesday (8 April), Harris said that South Africa gave itself &#8216;time and space&#8217; by instituting the lockdown when it did.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You have got the time to find the virus and you&#8217;ve got the time to put in social distancing measures to make sure people are genuinely not crowding together.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That doesn&#8217;t mean that you have to stop society, but it does mean that you have to look at how you can limit the opportunities for people to be packed together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Harris said that testing, finding all of the people who have been infected and ensuring that they self-isolate should remain the key priority &#8211; irrespective of whether the country is on a lockdown or not.<\/p>\n<p>Globally, coronavirus cases have climbed to 1,518,970, with 88,516 deaths, and 330,697 recoveries.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A victim of its own success\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While this analysis can largely be seen as a positive, Dean of the University of KwaZulu-Natal\u2019s School of Nursing and Public Health, professor Mosa Moshabela, said that the country may ultimately be a &#8216;victim of its own success&#8217; because of how it appears to have successfully contained the number of coronavirus cases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo far, in as much as there are challenges &#8211; including the fact that we are not testing everyone yet &#8211; we don\u2019t really know the true figure of what the burden is. Based on the numbers, it looks like we are doing well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem with doing well is that you are actually flattening the curve &#8211; and when you flatten the curve, the problem of Covid-19 is going to remain low, but for much longer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you become a victim of your own success, it means that you may have to be subjected to an extended lockdown because you are doing well at keeping the figures low,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>However, the professor warned that citizens could suffer from &#8216;lockdown fatigue&#8217; as the uncertainty of economic pressures of restrictions weighs down on ordinary South Africans.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No decision made yet\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu said that president Cyril Ramaphosa is still yet to make a decision on extending the lockdown as he considers all options based on scientific modelling and advice as well as the possible economic repercussions.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/ramaphosa-to-make-serious-decisions-about-lockdown-based-on-science-possible-economic-repercussions-20200409\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">News24<\/a><\/strong>, Mthembu said that the president will consult with various sectors and stakeholders before making a decision as he did before he announced the lockdown almost three weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;First, we must make a proper assessment if we have achieved all of our objectives, which was to a greater degree to flatten the infection curve and ensure it doesn&#8217;t peak. What we&#8217;ll have to review is whether we&#8217;ve achieved that,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The issue of the extension has not yet arisen. If it comes, there will be serious decisions to be made.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The National Command Council discusses all recommendations that come before it, and there must be scientific evidence supporting any recommendation from the national joint operational and intelligence structure,&#8221; Mthembu said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/388479\/south-africa-looks-to-bring-medical-workers-out-of-retirement-to-help-fight-against-coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Africa wants to bring medical workers out of retirement to help fight against coronavirus<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As South Africa approaches two-weeks of a three-week lockdown period, questions have been raised about whether it should be extended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":384181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-388531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388531"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388587,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388531\/revisions\/388587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}