The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the intended reopening of the personal care industry as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his address to the nation last night.
The truth is, President Ramaphosa has buckled under the pressure of our looming court case against the continued ban and criminalisation of the industry which is to be heard on 22 June 2020 before a full bench of the Western Cape High Court. The President knows full well Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma would lose.
In his patronising speech, Ramaphosa made the point that it was the amount of women working in the industry that really concerned him and forced him to act.
How is it possible that it took the President and his Ministers nearly two months to work this out, condemning these very same women to be treated as criminals just to keep a roof over their heads?
Due to the recent history of President Ramaphosa being overturned by Minister Dlamini-Zuma on important issues like this, the DA will continue to pursue our court case until such time as the regulations for the personal care industry are published and a firm date is given for them to reopen.
This means Minister Dlamini-Zuma will still need to file her responding affidavits to the court by the end of the 18th of June 2020. We will not allow the Minister to pull a fast one on South Africans again like she did with the tobacco ban.
Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court