DA welcomes announcement by Ramaphosa of Covid-19 economic stimulus package

In a statement on Tuesday evening, the DA welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of a “suite of economic support measures to counteract the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on individual South Africans, on businesses and on our economy as a whole”.

DA interim leader John Steenhuisen recognised that the promised R500 billion package would bring “much-needed relief to South Africans through grants, business relief, tax measures, additional healthcare budget and food programmes”.

The party had called for similar measures itself earlier in the day, which Steenhuisen pointed out in his statement.

“Many of the measures announced tonight echo those the DA has been calling for to safeguard not only the lives but also the livelihoods of millions of South Africans hit hard by the lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19. The president has our support in rolling out these interventions. He also has our support for the economic reforms he committed to, because without such reforms this R500 billion injection will be short-lived and ultimately wasted.”

Steenhuisen said they were encouraged that the president spoke of approaching institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank for the bulk of the funding for the package, particularly since these institutions had made available low interest, unconditional loans specifically for Covid-19 relief.

This was in stark contrast to the position of the EFF, which said in a statement of its own that the IMF and World Bank should be spurned due to the conditions their loans were generally issued with.

Steenhuisen also said it was encouraging to hear the president speak of a phased reopening of the economy following on a risk-adjusted approach based on scientific evidence.

“This is essentially the smart lockdown plan the DA proposed last week, and is critical to starting our economy up again. We look forward to the details of this plan,” he said.

Ramaphosa had undertaken to explain how this would work in another address to the nation on Thursday.

The DA said it would respond in detail to the economic stimulus package in a press conference at noon on Wednesday, where Steenhuisen along with the party’s shadow minister for health, Siviwe Garube, and shadow minister for finance, Geordin Hill-Lewis, would discuss both the health and the economic aspects of the stimulus package on the DA’s Facebook page.

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