Not all the lockdown regulations are bad, says Madonsela

Former Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela has said she doesn’t take issue with all the lockdown regulations cited in the Disaster Management Act, but that some have yielded positive results.

In an interview for Newzroom Afrika on DSTV channel 405, she said:

“Not everything about these regulations is wrong, let’s start with the fact that they have stopped carnage. Analysts had said that in Africa, it was going to be a killing field when COVID-19 comes into the continent. Our government and other governments on the continent have made sure that it’s not a killing field”

South Africa is currently on level 3 of the lockdown, which has resulted in more parts of the economy being allowed to operate, under the condition that the health guidelines are followed, to counter the spread of COVID-19.

Government should not have acted alone on regulations

Madonsela also said the government should have first consulted before taking any further steps.

“When the Disaster Management Act was first drafted, government was not supposed to act alone. It was supposed to have an inter-governmental committee that includes people from national, provincial and local and was also supposed to have an advisory forum that includes expertise from various areas of life because no person has all the answers”, she also said.

This comes after Madonsela penned an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, criticising government’s handling of the lockdown.

According to her, the trouble started when Ramaphosa announced an indefinite extension of the lockdown.

“The Constitution requires that no section of society should be unjustly and unfairly excluded from opportunities, resources, benefits and privileges. No group should bear a disproportionate burden under the Covid-19 rules”, she said in the letter.

“But you need to know, Mr President, that there are increasing concerns about the reasonableness of some of the Covid-19 rules. Like equality, reasonableness is also a legal requirement for policies.”

“How long will the cry of the young people in villages and townships – whose self-employment has ground to a halt, their unregistered businesses ineligible for loans and salary relief – go unheard? While the R350 basic income grant for the unemployed is fantastic, how long will it take to reach the poverty hotspots?”