The EFF has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to return
the country to level 5 lockdown for the next three months.
The call comes as the number of Covid-19 cases in SA has
climbed significantly in recent days.
"No amount of social distancing, wearing masks [or]
sanitisation will help reduce the rise in infections and death. The only strategy
that will help is staying at home," said the EFF.
As things stood, both public and private healthcare systems
would not be able to cope with the rising numbers of positive Covid-19 cases,
said the party.
"As a result, thousands of people will die - simply
because they cannot get access to healthcare. In the next few weeks, the
majority of companies, schools and public spaces will be unable to operate as
workers and customers will be infected."
Before this happened, the responsible and constitutionally
imperative thing to do was to prevent the loss of lives, it said.
In order to sustain level 5 lockdown for three months, the
country must unite in a planned supply of food, electricity, water and
sanitation for all, it added.
The party suggested that food prices be "controlled
through regulations".
It said all financial institutions must be
"forced" through regulations to give interest-free payment holidays
for three months for all non-essential workers and businesses.
The EFF said all basic and higher education learning and
teaching must be conducted online and through the public broadcaster.
It also called for "satellite quarantine centres"
to be established in all informal settlements.
All essential workers in water, sanitation, security,
energy, transport, food and agriculture must be given free medical healthcare
coverage for Covid-19, it added.
"If we do not lock down now, there will be hundreds of
thousands of lives lost, the majority of which will be poor black people.
Worse, there will be no experienced workforce to speak of when the scourge of
Covid-19 passes."
It said a refusal to lock down the country under level 5
regulations would therefore be read as "complicity with the mass murder of
our people". Times
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