The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has rejected the National Command Council’s (NCC’s) plans to phase out the national lockdown in stages, arguing that a relaxation of lockdown regulations should only happen when scientific evidence proves that the curve is flattening at a high speed.

Government announced on Thursday its plans to phase out the lockdown in stages, with the NCC amending the disaster management regulations to begin a phased recovery of the economy, by allowing certain sectors to return to operation under strict conditions.

The EFF said all medical and epidemiological evidence suggested that the country should stick to strict regulations across the board.

“Relaxation of the lockdown regulations can only be effected when there is scientific evidence that the curve is flattening at a high speed, the recovery rate of those found positive is increasing relative to a high population testing rate and that the health care system has been tested and found ready for a rebound of the second peak of infections,” the party said in a statement.

The party said it rejected any relaxations in non-essential services saying there are  low numbers of tested people. South Africa has conducted 95 060 tests to date, with 2 605 positive cases and 48 deaths.

“It is not a secret that the majority of those who tested are white people. Many African people have not been tested and as a result there is no knowledge of the nature and spread of the pandemic in their communities. A ‘white people only data’ can never paint a true picture of the impact of Covid-19 in our country, unless government wants to tell us that only white lives matter,” the EFF said.

The party went on to allege that relaxations were purely for profit maximisation by “greedy companies”.

Opening up large-scale industries like mines, call centres and ports, where workers are in close contact, was condemning people to mass slaughter, the EFF stated.

The party added that the majority of those workers being asked to report for duty were black, coming from communities without adequate healthcare.

“The only thing that these amended regulations do is to give operational legitimacy to non-essential services for the sole purpose of profit maximisation at the expense of people’s lives,” the party said.