During a media briefing on Thursday, 9 December, minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele announced that the state of disaster will be extended until January 2022.
“The national state of disaster is aimed at responding to the special circumstances presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
It is expected that Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will formally gazette the extension in the upcoming week.
In light of the new variant, stricter regulations expected ahead of festive season
Since the discovery of the latest Covid-19 variant, Omicron, South Africans have been on edge as they expect the more stringent regulations ahead of the holidays.
However, according to Gungubele, the cabinet has not yet considered tightening the regulations.
“So far the reports we are getting is that there is no red flag in that. That is why vaccination is becoming so important so that we can live with this Coronavirus. Because we need to find a balance between our livelihoods and lives because these are the same two sides of the same coin.”
South Africa in its 22nd month under the state of disaster
December marks the 22nd month since the state of disaster was first declared at the end of March 2020.
The government has relied on the regulations to “introduce and give effect to lockdown restrictions“. And as a result, they managed to “curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
And while it is not expected for the state of disaster to end soon, president Ramaphosa has hinted that new Covid-19 regulations could be introduced.
During the national address on 28 November, Ramaphosa explained that the government has “started the process of amending health regulations so that government can review the use of the Disaster Management Act to manage the response to the pandemic, with a view to ultimately lifting the national state of disaster“.
