Government must resign in shame – John Steenhuisen
Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen has said that the South African government should resign in shame for its failure to handle the coronavirus pandemic, economic crisis and for compromising the country’s democracy.
In what he called the “true state of the nation”, ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address on Thursday, Steenhuisen said the country is in crisis and called for Ramaphosa to address this on Thursday.
Speaking on Covid-19, Steenhuisen said the only way out of the pandemic is a massive vaccine roll-out.
On the economy, he said the country needed urgent, bold and brave economic reform.
Steenhuisen added that the country was also in a crisis of democracy following recent testimony out of the State capture commission of inquiry, led by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
“We can say with certainty that none of these three things are going to happen right away. While we are still waiting for a full, detailed vaccination plan from the president, we do know that we won’t have nearly enough vaccines to prevent the third and possibly the fourth wave of the virus from running throughout the country. This means there is a possible lockdown looming over our already shuttered economy,” Steenhuisen stated.
He warned that another lockdown would result in more job losses and extraordinary human suffering and depravation.
Steenhuisen dismissed reports that rich countries have hoarded the vaccines, as reiterated by Ramaphosa in recent weeks. He said South Africa did not order vaccines between May and July 2020, when other countries were doing so.
“The failure to procure vaccines when they were available to us, and the failure to publish a detailed and transparent roll-out plan are a violation of government’s constitutional obligation,” he added.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation