South Africans’ determination to overcome the coronavirus pandemic is key to “bending the curve” in easing lockdown restrictions from Level 3 to Level 2, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said on Wednesday.
Mboweni said this during a virtual Parliament debate to pass the Disaster Management Tax Relief and the Disaster Management Tax Relief Administration bills which were introduced in June in response to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the country’s economy.
During the debate, Mboweni said his compatriots, irrespective of their political affiliations, had played a role in making government’s achievements possible in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Working as a collective has been very important in placing the country on the road to controlling the disease, the minister said.
He added that the massive intervention programme – governed by the two laws – to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic was needed to reboot the economy.
“I think that we have managed to bend the curve of infections, deaths, and improving recoveries. We have done all this because we have been working together as South Africans despite our different political positions,” the minister said.
South Africa has so far registered 613,017 Covid-19 cases, while the death toll stands at 13,308 since the first case of the virus in the country was recorded in March 2020.
The government eased its lockdown restrictions from Level 3 to Level 2 in August, and the move has seen the reopening of most economic sectors in the country.
NM/jn/APA