New regulations for hunting industry demonstrate sheer ignorance

29 July 2020

The new regulations issued by the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Forestry and Fisheries, Barbara Creecy, that apply to the hunting industry and that prohibit people from crossing provincial borders and staying overnight demonstrate her ignorance of how this industry operates.

It is basically impossible to go hunting if one is not allowed to cross provincial borders and stay overnight at the hunting grounds. These regulations will bring the hunting industry to its knees and will result in many bankruptcies.

This is just another example of the absurd regulations enforced by the government, which apparently has no idea how the economy, or in this case the hunting industry, operates.

When looking at these new regulations, it appears as if South Africa has effectively moved back to lockdown Level Four and is no longer on the progressive Level Three, especially if the curfew is also taken into account.

In the meantime, the FF Plus's review application to the North Gauteng High Court about the validity of some of the lockdown regulations continues. In terms of the application, the government must provide the reasons for its decisions regarding the lockdown, restrictions and the various levels.

The FF Plus is proceeding with the case because many of the regulations are simply irrational in nature and many of them are not in line with the main aim of limiting the spread of Covid-19.

The people of South Africa cannot just meekly accept more irrational and absurd regulations enforced by an incompetent government that clearly does not understand how the economy functions in practice.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 28 July 2020