Lockdown to be lifted in stages, says NDZ. Few specifics given, but booze still banned

On Thursday it was confirmed that the ongoing lockdown would be lifted in stages, according to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs.

“Lockdown will be lifted in an incremental and orderly manner,” she told a ministerial briefing this afternoon. The gazetted rules for the second phase of the lockdown beginning on Friday would be only slightly different to those already in place.

“We will be announcing every week which sectors can open,” she said, but was not currently naming them. She confirmed that the ban on alcohol sales would remain in place until the end of April. Cigarettes will also not be allowed on sale again in the immediate lockdown future.

“Schools might be opening,” she also said. Vehicles needed for delivering essential goods and services would be allowed to be repaired.

“When we do stop the lockdown, we cannot do it abruptly, that today it’s complete lockdown and tomorrow, it’s open completely. We have to phase in so that there is an orderly move towards normality.”

Dlamini-Zuma said mines and refineries would be allowed to ramp up ahead of the lockdown phaseout with strict conditions on how miners interact.

Other ongoing measures included:

• People may stay in hotels if attending funerals;
• Plumbers and electricians would be allowed to operate more broadly again;
• Cooked food would not be allowed to be sold by restaurants yet, even as takeaways;
• Call centres used by retailers would be allowed to open;
• There would be a relaxing of restrictions at ports; and
• Relaxing restrictions on IT workers.

“We don’t know if the lockdown will end this month. Some conditions will remain in place for a very long time,” she said.

Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel has said that there will be a gradual reintroduction of goods and services, but they were trying to avoid causing a rush of people at one time for particular items or services.

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