Ramaphosa is ‘doing a lot of consultations’ on tightening SA’s lockdown restrictions

President Cyril Ramaphosa has reportedly been doing a lot of consultations on whether to tighten South Africa’s lockdown restrictions ahead of the festive season holidays.

As South Africans wait to hear whether the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC), which meets this week, will recommend to the president to increase lockdown restrictions, City Press reports that since Ramaphosa returned from his working visit to West Africa on Wednesday, he has been doing a lot of consultations on the issue.

According to sources within the Presidency, the president is not happy with the rapid rise in new Covid-19 infections being reported daily, which are believed to be driven by the new Omicron variant.

The sources told City Press the most concerning thing for the president is the high number of gatherings that are expected during the festive season holidays.

Ramaphosa initially had no intentions to address the nation on Covid-19 developments but he might be forced to make several adjustments to the lockdown measures, according to the paper.

“He is considering proposing to the NCCC and cabinet a few adjustments which include banning the sale of alcohol on weekends and public holidays until mid-January.

“Don’t be surprised when we have a family meeting before Thursday. He is serious about protecting the country,” City Press quoted a source as saying.

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Since his last televised address to the nation on 28 November, Ramaphosa kept the country on level 1 lockdown and said a task team was established to look into introducing mandatory vaccinations.

However, the Minister in Presidency Mondli Gungubele on Thursday said Cabinet was yet to receive recommendations from the task team on the matter.

Gungubele said Cabinet and the NCCC were monitoring the effects of the Omicron variant on vaccines and hospital admissions across the country.

He said the information they were receiving from scientists had so far raised no red flags on pressure being experienced by hospitals due to the surge in the number of Covid infections reported daily.

Gungubele said Cabinet was taking into account the balance between saving lives and livelihoods before any announcements could be made on lockdown restrictions.

“If we don’t strike a balance between the two, once the other one collapses, there is no life. They’re two sides of the same coin and that coin is life,” he said.

As of Saturday, South Africa has recorded 19,018 new cases and 36 related deaths.

This increase represents a 22.8% positivity rate which is lower than Friday, which was at 29.7%. The seven-day average was 25.5% on Saturday, which is lower than Friday (25,7%).

The majority of new cases were from Gauteng (49%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (13%). Western Cape accounted for 11%; North West accounted for 6%; Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape each accounted for 5% respectively; and Northern Cape accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe

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