South Africa must put politics aside to defeat COVID-19

15 March 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to declare a National State of Disaster with regards to the now internal transmission of COVID-19, including a number of drastic contingency measures to inhibit the spread of the virus and ensure the safety of each and every South African.

The DA-led Western Cape government is also poised and ready to address this national emergency, and will work in full cooperation with national government in the interests of our country and its citizens.

Now, more than ever, we must put politics aside if we are going to succeed in the fight against COVID-19.

In his address to the nation tonight, the president revealed that in the last 12 hours there were 10 more confirmed COVID-19 cases. He also revealed at least one of these cases was as a result of internal transmission.

This is very worrying and we will be tracking and closely monitoring the implementation of the President’s announcements both in our own governments as well as those elsewhere in the country, while doing everything in our power to mitigate the effects of these measures on the country’s already strained economy and public healthcare system.

We urge all South Africans to observe these measures very closely and to take every precaution necessary to avoid possible infection with, or transmission of, the COVID-19 virus. This is a crisis of the collective affecting us all either directly or indirectly. We must band together to formulate a collective response to this virus in order to overcome it.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 15 March 2020