DURBAN - FOLLOWING Monday’s announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa ending the National State of Disaster, the EFF has slammed the two years as a long, drawn-out series of unscientific, irrational and inconsistent application of lockdown regulations.
In a statement, the red berets were scathing of the head of state, saying that after this period, Ramaphosa had finally realised that the “ad-hoc power” provisioned by a pandemic could not be sustained forever.
Sinawo Thmbo, EFF national spokesperson, said Ramaphosa had conceded to sanity after having failed to build a single new hospital, failed to motivate citizens to vaccinate and became an ambassador of Western vaccines “given to the nation by his funders”.
“Ramaphosa presided over the death of our people and whilst doing so, oversaw massive Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) corruption. The corruption went to the highest level in his office, further confirming his complicity in corrupt activity.
“Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko, was implicated in PPE corruption to the tune of R125 million, his Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize implicated in corruption scandal to the tune of R150 million and MECs across the country using death as an opportunity to loot,” Thambo said.
He said the primary goal now should be a concerted effort to build a new economy that would not be based on liberal policy perspectives.
Thambo added that the pandemic had revealed the role of the state in the development and industrialisation and the specific need for state pharmaceutical capacity.
“Put simply, in times of crisis, capitalism withers as a narrow, self-seeking ideological perspective, and socialist-aligned and state-guided economic policy prevails,” he said.
Thambo affirmed that the EFF would carefully scrutinise the National Health Act and the supposed pandemic regulations that will be integrated into the act, adding that they wanted to ensure that the government does not “smuggle regulations into law”, which would give them the power to micromanage the political terrain and enhance their ability to conduct illegal and corrupt procurement.
Thambo also added that the pandemic had exposed an incompetent government that is committed to corruption, even in the face of death and that South Africans should realise that there is no future under the leadership of people who could not manufacture a vaccine or produce a single hospital dedicated to managing the virus during a global pandemic.
The story will be updated with comments from government spokesperson Tyrone Seale and ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe when they have responded to texted questions.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE