New regulations could see Malema and EFF imprisoned

The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has gazetted the new regulations following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address on Sunday.

One of the amended regulations could see Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema imprisoned or fined following the party’s statement and his media briefing in which he vows to defy the President and also call on others to do the same.

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It reads: “(9) Any person who incites, instigates, commands, or procures any other person to commit any offence in terms of these regulations, commits an offence and is, on conviction, liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment.”

Following the president’s address, the party said it would only support measures based on a clear rollout of vaccines to the whole country, further vowing to continue with its political programmes as planned.

“The EFF rejects Ramaphosa lockdown that seeks to imprison us while he continues to mismanage state resources,” it said in a statement.

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“Without a clear vaccination plan that sources vaccines from all parts of the world including Russia, China and Cuba, Ramaphosa’s measures are not worth respecting.

“The EFF will therefore not comply to the dictates of Ramaphosa and will continue with our political programmes and mobilisation because as things stand, there are by-elections on the 30 June and local government elections on 27 October. We will only support measures based on the rapid rollout of vaccines,” the party said.

These are some of the new changes:

• The wearing of a face mask is mandatory for every person when in a public place, excluding a child under the age of six years, continues the gazette.
• All employers must also adopt measures to promote physical distancing of employees, including enabling employees to be physically present at the workplace, the provision for adequate space, restrictions on face to face meetings, special measures for employees above the age of 60 who are at a higher risk of complications or death if they are infected with Covid-19.
• All courier and delivery services shall provide for minimal personal contact during delivery.
• Everyone is confined to his or her place of residence from 9pm to 4am daily, unless granted permission, attending to an emergency, arrives on a flight travelling to or from an airport.
• Initiation practices are prohibited, all those who started before 27 June will be allowed to finish.
• A person may not be evicted from his or her land or home or have his or her place of residence demolished for the duration of the national state of disaster unless a competent court has granted an order authorising the eviction or demolition.

Read the gazette below: