Cry freedom, it’s IMF or bust

Control freaks have taken away many liberties in the fight against Covid-19. The proposed 8pm to 5am curfew is a step too far.

We are entitled to better explanations. Covid-19 cannot be a blanket excuse to cover every tyrannical diktat – petty or otherwise – from prohibiting pavement clean-ups, to banning all alcohol sales.

Why is a curfew necessary when we move from Level 5 lockdown to a supposedly more relaxed Level 4? We have survived nearly five weeks without a curfew, why impose one now?

Under lockdown we are already confined to our homes, except when on “essential” tasks. Why the need for an additional curfew? This is a tightening.

The deployment of more than 75,000 army personnel is also worrying. Is their purpose to help enforce a curfew? Why, when Human Sciences Research Council survey results show 99% of South Africans are complying with lockdown regulations?

The hard-won freedom commemorated on Monday must not be surrendered. Too much is being handed over without debate. We are not under a state of emergency. The constitution has not been suspended. Section 33 of the constitution says everyone whose rights have been adversely affected by administrative action has the right to written reasons. Similarly, the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (Paja) has not been superseded. Paja says everyone has the right to fair, lawful and reasonable administrative action; and to reasons for administrative action that affects them negatively.

Where are the written reasons for the total ban on alcohol sales, or for Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel’s quirky attempts to limit e-commerce? “If we open up any one category, let’s say e-commerce, unavoidably there’s enormous pressure to do the same for physical stores, for spaza shops, for informal traders, so there is fair competition,” he told a Saturday media briefing. Nonsense.

Make your own list of freedoms that are under threat. And then ask yourself whether plausible reasons have been given, especially in light of increasing evidence that, as Helen Zille says, “while Covid-19 is serious, it is not nearly as lethal [on its own] as initially thought. Therefore we must think very, very carefully before we do any more lasting, lethal damage to our economy. Because that will cost lives too. Many”.

Unnecessarily limiting our freedom to work, trade and generally do business is having a devastating effect on the economy.

This goes beyond the debate about lives versus economy. For the tripartite alliance, topheavy with old-fashioned communists and socialists, it’s about control. In opposing efforts to secure International Monetary Fund (IMF) finance, they say South Africa’s sovereignty will be undermined by conditions imposed. But sovereignty here is a cover for control.

The governing party’s control of the economy led us to recession, downgrades and high unemployment before lockdown. Inequality worsened. And they still don’t heed advice from those who understand economics.

South Africa has run out of money. Simple. None of the permutations of how the R500 billion-plus stimulus package will be funded can be achieved without help from the IMF.

That nightmare for control freaks could save South Africa. Do we want our lives back?

Martin Williams, DA councillor and former editor of The Citizen.

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