Government is treating citizens like children, says DA

In a statement on Wednesday reacting to the final regulations on how the Covid-19 lockdown would continue in level 4, DA leader John Steenhuisen said government had come up with some irrational decisions to curb the spread of the virus, along with other orders that smacked of pure authoritarianism.

“Ultimately, there is not enough to distinguish lockdown Level 4 from Level 5. This will be disastrous for millions of lives and livelihoods,” Steenhuisen said.

“Government has essentially smuggled through an extension of the hard lockdown under the guise of easing restrictions.”

He maintained that the DA’s Smart Lockdown proposal would have seen more of the economy being opened “without compromising safety”.

He called the current approach “unnecessarily blunt and restrictive, with simply no justification for many of the arbitrary rules and restrictions”.

The DA had proposed an incentives-driven approach in which government would specify the safety measures that would have to be in place before a business could open, and businesses could then decide if they were willing or able to meet the required safety standards.

“This empowers employers, employees and customers within a reasonable set of safety rules. Reasonableness and compliance go hand in hand. Government’s unreasonable approach may undermine the whole Covid-19 response by generating an explosion of non-compliance.”

He said the DA’s approach would actually have incentivised businesses and people to comply, “maximising jobs and tax revenue”.

“Government’s [plan] forces many to remain closed, potentially forcing them underground – to trade illegally or die.”

He offered the example of working class people who run salons and barbers out of their homes to support their families.

“The DA’s Level 4 would allow hairdressers to operate, as long as they can meet a specified level of safety.”

He described some of the state’s latest decisions as “draconian”, such as the continued ban on smoking and sale of hot food.

“Will sugar and fatty foods be next? The president told us smoking would be allowed in Level 4 – but the command council has now backtracked on this.”

He said it was simply irrational to make some decisions that were not based on a consideration of public safety at all, which was the whole purpose of a lockdown.

“E-commerce (online shopping with delivery) for example is not allowed. Other countries are looking to e-commerce to keep their small businesses afloat, save jobs and service customers. Here we’ve chosen arbitrary ministerial diktat over harnessing individual creativity and decision-making.

“Surely the only criterion that matters here is the risk of spreading the virus. If this risk is minimal, then the business should be allowed to trade. Any other decision is purely authoritarian.”

He said it appeared that the state’s call for comment had merely been “a box-ticking exercise, since little has changed from what the government proposed last week, notwithstanding the 70,000 submissions”.

The party called the proposed solution around exercise “incomprehensible”.

“Government seems to have forgotten the whole reason we locked down in the first place – to ensure our wellbeing. Now citizens are told they can only exercise between 6am and 9am – as if exercising after work in the evening is somehow bad for them. If anything, this is less safe, as people will all be out at the same time.

“And what of those who need to leave home at 5am to get to work? But then again, the ANC has long-since stopped caring about poor people. Or perhaps, for them, the working day doesn’t start before 9am?”

Steenhuisen said the ban on alcohol was “well intended” but would still have severe negative unintended consequences.

“This will broaden business opportunities for the mafia and starve our fiscus of needed revenue. The DA suggested reasonable restrictions on times and quantity of legal alcohol sales.”

He said that the common thread running through all the restrictions appeared to be government’s fundamental lack of trust in the people of South Africa, who were “being treated as children rather than adults”.

“People are not being trusted with data or empowered with any reasonable degree of personal decision-making.

“The curfew demonstrates this best of all. The DA will consider challenging its legality. President Ramaphosa’s cabinet seems to be indulging in all its nanny-state fantasies. It may soon find itself having to justify these in court, where reasonableness still prevails.”

(Edited by Charles Cilliers)

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