Statement by Premier Alan Winde: Response to President Cyril Ramaphosa's remarks

18 June 2020

We welcome the announcements made by President Cyril Ramaphosa last night, which will allow more sectors of our economy to re-open and people,who have not been able to work since the lockdown was first implemented, to start earning a salary again.

The lockdown, first implemented in March, has had a severe impact on our economy, and has resulted in an increased need for humanitarian support as people have been unable to feed their families as a result of not earning a salary, or having lost their jobs.

The Western Cape's tourism and hospitality industry sustains thousands of jobs in the province and allowing restaurants to re-open for sit down meals, and certain tourism and conferencing services to re-open will provide some relief. We await further clarity from the regulations detailing when and how these businesses will be able to operate.

The closure of personal care services had a major impact on a number of small businesses, which as President Ramaphosa pointed out, are overwhelmingly owned and staffed by women. Allowing these businesses to re-open will have a major impact on many homes and families across the province and the country.

The re-opening of these businesses must be done carefully, and with the utmost attention to hygiene and safety standards. The Western Cape Government has drawn up a series of guidelines for various businesses and sectors and we encourage all businesses who will be re-opening to consult these guidelines and start putting measures in place to ensure that they can re-open in the safest possible way. The guidelines can be found here: https://coronavirus.westerncape.gov.za/files/atoms/files/Preventing%20and%20managing%20coronavirus%20infection%20in%20the%20workplace%20-%206%20May%202020.pdf

The re-opening of more areas of our economy must not be seen as an opportunity to let our guards down. We must remain vigilant in our efforts to minimise the spread of the virus. Stay at home wherever possible, especially if you are in one of the high-risk groups. Wash your hands regularly, cough or sneeze into your elbow or a tissue and keep surfaces clean. When leaving home, wear a clean, cloth mask and always keep a distance of 1.5 metres between yourself and other people. If you feel sick- stay at home. By implementing these measures, we can stay safe and help protect the people we love.

Gender Based Violence:

I stand behind President Ramaphosa's call to end gender based violence. As a society we all have a role to play in ending violence against women and children. The recent spate of violent attacks on women all have one thing in common: they have been perpetrated by men. So as men, we bear an even greater responsibility in ending gender based violence. We must never remain silent in the face of discrimination and violence. We must raise our boys to treat women as equals, instill in them the values of respect and give them the tools to resolve conflicts and to process their emotional responses without resorting to anger and violence.

We send our deepest condolences to those who are mourning the devastating loss of a daughter, mother, grandmother, friend of colleague right now. We welcome the fact that arrests have been made in many of these cases but research from around the world has shown that the biggest deterrent to crime is certainty of punishment. The responsibility now lies on those in our justice system to ensure that investigations are completed, evidence is preserved, dockets are completed and those who are guilty, are brought to book.

These acts of violence should make us all feel anger, sadness and shame. But they must also make us question what each of us can do to make our country safer for women and force us to take action now. 

A major contributor to violence in this country is abuse of alcohol. We have seen the increases in crime and in trauma associated with alcohol since it was unbanned at the beginning of this month. As a province, we are exploring legislative changes in order to reduce the harms associated with alcohol abuse as part of our safety plan but at the same time, we must all take personal responsibility,drink responsibly and reach out for assistance by calling our Department of Social Development hotline on  0800 220 250.

Issued by Western Cape Office of the Premier, 18 June 2020