DA condemns alcohol transportation restriction over the Easter weekend

1 April 2021

The DA notes the ridiculous regulation from the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, that the transportation of alcohol would not be allowed over the next four days of the Easter long-weekend, and that any person found in contravention of this regulation would be arrested.

This is just another heavy-handed restriction by the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) in a long line since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, that criminalizes ordinary citizens while true crime flourishes.

The truth is that more people have been arrested during the pandemic for breaking irrational regulations than there have been vaccinations in South Africa. The NCCC never seems to have its eye on the prize – South Africa being fully open, and our citizens safely vaccinated against Covid-19.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) have often enforced irrational lockdown regulations in a brutal fashion, and the DA is very concerned that this regulation could give rise to police brutality over the long weekend.

The NCCC must reconsider its focus and repeal this regulation as a matter of urgency.

Issued by Dean Macpherson, DA Shadow Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, 1 April 2021