Now is the Future

Western Cape Premier calls for the National State of Disaster to end

Written by

in

Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde, has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to urgently convene the President’s Coordinating Council to discuss the end of the National State of Disaster.

Winde says while the national government has alluded to the National State of Disaster and its regulations will come to an end soon, there are no clear timelines for when it will happen.

Winde says there are no compelling reasons for another extension as the country needs to move towards normalising its COVID-19 response through the existing measures already in place.

“Now in less than two weeks’ time, it’ll be the 15th of March once again and we still don’t have any clarity. We cannot extend the State of Disaster, it needs to end now. I have not had the meetings as requested. On the 11th of February, I requested a meeting, it was then pushed to the Minister of COGTA and then said we must wait for the PCC. So I call on that PCC urgently, we need to end the State of Disaster.”

Winde calls for an end to National State of Disaster

National State of Disaster extended for the last time

The National State of Disaster has been extended for the last time until 15 March 2022. This follows a virtual Cabinet meeting that was held on Wednesday where the extension of the state of disaster was one of the issues under discussion.

Cabinet says the extension was granted after engagements were held through the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NatJOINTS). It says some of the key departments dealing with COVID-19 still have to conclude their analysis.

Cabinet says it has therefore approved the final extension of the National State of Disaster to 15 March.

“Cabinet was apprised on the work that has been undertaken through the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure to determine the extent to which the management of the COVID-19 pandemic still required the existence of the National State of Disaster. Inputs were received from various government departments to determine their respective areas of work that are at an advanced stage of completion. However, after noting that some of the key departments dealing with COVID-19 had not yet concluded their analysis, Cabinet approved the final extension of the National State of Disaster to 15 March 2022, in terms of Section 27(5)(c) of the Disaster Management Act, 2002 (Act 57 of 2002),” says the Cabinet statement.

SONA 2022 I President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech 

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts