South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has been urged to lift all Covid-19 restrictions “so that entertainment and sports can go back to normal” in the country after nearly two years of pandemic lockdowns.
Opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema said this when he addressed thousands of party supporters who gathered at Durban’s Moses Mabhida People’s Park on Saturday.
The gathering also coincided with the ruling African National Congress (ANC)’s 110th birthday anniversary rally on Saturday held in the northern Limpopo provincial city of Polokwane which Ramaphosa addressed as well.
“We want the entertainment industry to open up again. We want our people to be entertained,” Malema said.
He added: “We are unemployed. We don’t have money to go to school, to buy houses, or pay rent. We need to entertain ourselves from our own poverty.”
The politician noted that the entertainment industry had been the biggest casualty of the pandemic lockdowns.
Malema’s comments, however, seemed to contradict the reality on the ground, where Ramaphosa’s government has since the final days of 2021 drastically eased its Covid-19 regulations.
Under relaxed Covid-19 lockdown measures announced in December 2021, restaurants and bars are now allowed to sell alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption.
On December 30, the government scrapped a curfew that had been in place since March 2020.
It also initially announced an easing around quarantines and contact tracing but subsequently reversed these plans.
NM/jn/APA