{"id":464644,"date":"2021-02-01T12:50:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T10:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=464644"},"modified":"2021-02-01T12:51:33","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T10:51:33","slug":"ramaphosa-to-address-south-africa-on-covid-19-lockdown-on-monday-evening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/464644\/ramaphosa-to-address-south-africa-on-covid-19-lockdown-on-monday-evening\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa to address South Africa on Covid-19 lockdown on Monday evening"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation at 20h00 on Monday (1 February) to discuss developments in relation to the country\u2019s response to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The address follows meetings in recent days of the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC), the President\u2019s Coordinating Council (PCC) and Cabinet,&#8221; the presidency said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The president\u2019s address will be broadcast and streamed on a range of platforms that are accessible to South Africans and international audiences.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ramaphosa is expected to address the country&#8217;s adjusted level 3 lockdown and ongoing restrictions, including the prohibition on the sale of alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>The country introduced new restrictions on 29 December as it grappled with the impact of a second Covid-19 wave. However, data from health authorities shows that the country has likely passed the peak in infections.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA TO ADDRESS THE NATION ON DEVELOPMENTS IN COVID-19 RESPONSE<\/p>\n<p>President <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CyrilRamaphosa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CyrilRamaphosa<\/a> will address the nation at 20h00 today, Monday 1 February 2021, on developments in relation to the country\u2019s response to the Coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Presidency | South Africa \ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6 (@PresidencyZA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PresidencyZA\/status\/1356189362489319424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Alcohol<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A key consideration around the president&#8217;s address will be the issue of alcohol sales.<\/p>\n<p>News24\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/464432\/government-discusses-lifting-alcohol-ban-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported<\/a><\/strong> that discussions are underway in several government departments to consider the possibility of lifting the alcohol ban as infection rates ease.<\/p>\n<p>The opening of beaches, the evening curfew and concerns around the opening of schools are also issues which have been raised, and are likely to considered.<\/p>\n<p>The South African Liquor Brand owners Association (SALBA) says the most recent data on South Africa\u2019s Covid-19 hospitalisations point to a steady decline, indicating that the latest ban has done its job.<\/p>\n<p>Sibani Mngadi, chairperson of SALBA, said: \u201cAvailable data does not back government\u2019s argument that the current prohibition of sale of alcohol is being maintained to preserve the maximum capacity in the health system to handle a surge in Covid-19 admissions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mngadi added that it was now time for the government to roll back the prohibition to limit further losses of jobs and revenue for the sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the first two bans, alcohol excise tax contribution to government declined by more than 28% from R47 billion in 2019\/20 to R34 billion in 2020\/21.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis R13 billion loss in alcohol tax revenue could have easily compensated for the investment needed in procurement of vaccines and other measures needed to curb the impact of Covid-19 on our society,\u201d said Mngadi.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/464628\/south-africa-to-get-clarity-on-the-reopening-of-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Africa to get clarity on the reopening of schools<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation at 20h00 on Monday (1 February) to discuss developments in relation to the country\u2019s response to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":460474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-464644","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\/464644","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\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464650,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464644\/revisions\/464650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}