The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has written to the government to oppose draft regulations under the National Health Act (NHA) that would make some lockdown measures permanent.
If enforced, the draft Regulations will impose 50% capacity restrictions on places of business and worship, vaccine mandates for large outdoor events and mask mandates for persons entering ‘any public premises’, the IRR points out in a statement.
It says the organisation has collected over 15 000 signatures opposing various forms of citizen abuse inflicted via lockdown measures, including a petition against vaccine mandates and the Free Your Face campaign to end the mask mandate.
The IRR says in its submission to the Department of Health shows that, on a careful reading, the NHA ‘does not permit the Minister of Health, Joe Phaahla, to force a universal change in how South Africans dress in public places, or to limit business so pervasively, or to impose vaccine mandates’.
‘Not only do the Regulations exceed the power provided by the NHA, they are also inconsistent with the Constitution – specifically Section 12, which guarantees bodily integrity, Section 14, which guarantees the right to privacy, Section 21, which guarantees freedom of movement and Section 36, which designates the strict tests that must be passed in order for the government to limit any of these fundamental freedoms. None of the tests are passed by the draft Regulations.’
The IRR notes that, according to a World Bank list of over 150 countries, South Africa has the worst unemployment rate on record. Whereas in countries including India, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Egypt and Kenya pandemic job losses have been recovered, in South Africa 1.9 million jobs have been indefinitely lost since the lockdown.
Said Gabriel Crouse, IRR Head of Campaigns: ‘Our polling, and polling by Ipsos, has shown that most South Africans consider unemployment to be the number one problem in the country. The draft Regulations must be scrapped so that we can get back to work. Poverty kills and work is the only sustainable cure.’
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