Cape Town - The Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town have called for the national government to end the nationwide curfew.
In a statement released, Mayco member for Economic Growth James Vos joined the growing call for the termination of the curfew to allow for businesses and informal traders to resume trading in full, due to the high levels of Covid-19 vaccinations already administered.
“We cannot let the economy, and in particular our hospitality and tourism sectors, small businesses and informal traders, endure further losses due to restricted trading hours. As it is, the joblessness rate is at a shocking 46.6%. As a nation, we are all too sadly aware of the knock-on socio-economic effects of a high unemployment rate,” said Vos.
Vos said he would be engaging with other sectoral leaders and organisations to join in the call to end the curfew, one of which is the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa).
Fedhasa national chairperson Rosemary Anderson said: “The government rationale behind the curfew was that it was needed to keep any additional pressure off the healthcare system, when Covid-19 cases at the time were translating into high volumes of hospitalisation.
“The figures presented by the government now indicate that there is no pressure on our healthcare system. So, as such the rationale for the current curfew is now no longer relevant.
“There is also no scientific evidence that Covid-19 is more easily transmitted between midnight and 4am,” Anderson said.
“Any close contact without wearing masks or social distancing has a higher chance of Covid-19 transmission, so Covid-19 transmission can just as easily occur in the hours before the curfew.”
During the province’s weekly digicon, Premier Alan Winde said the declaration of a National State of Disaster and curfew needed to be re-assessed as a mitigation tool.
“Even before the fourth wave, I was already saying that we need to relook at the Disaster declaration because it is a tool that has been used for too long. Our hospital system is not burdened like it was in previous waves,” Winde said.
In a statement released, Winde called for the curfew to be lifted ahead of New Year’s Eve.
“I have requested that President Cyril Ramaphosa lift the curfew ahead of New Year’s Eve. If it continues, it will have a major impact on our tourism and hospitality sector with restaurants unable to serve patrons until midnight, losing significant revenue.
“This sector cannot afford it, especially after the terrible impact that travel bans have had over the last month,” Winde said.
“Our country’s law enforcement should also be singularly focussed on ensuring that we prevent trauma in our communities and enforcing a curfew province wide would divert resources from crime hotspots and therefore prove to be a distraction to this critical objective.”
"If we are to get the balance right to save both lives and jobs, removing the curfew is the correct decision to make. This however means that greater personal responsibility is required, so that we can ensure a peaceful New Year’s Eve with less trauma,“ he added.