President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa held his second presidential imbizo on Wednesday night, taking questions via calls from local community organisations and the general public.
However, President Ramaphosa was addressing all the standard topics, the head of state ended up replying in a very blunt manner to one query, suggesting that South Africans “must expect their rights to be affected”.
Since the national Covid-19 lockdown started in March in a bid to help the country get ready for the pandemic that was coming, there have been complaints about citizen rights being violated.
The initial “hard” lockdown introduced a ban on alcohol and cigarette sales, brought about a curfew and instituted various roadblocks across the country.
As the country has been eased into lockdown Level 3, the Level 5 conditions of a ban on booze, a curfew and cigarettes are yet again in place.
President Ramaphosa said: “We know, as I’ve said previously, it [the alcohol ban] is an imposition on our rights. We are now in a war. We are in a war zone and our rights will inadvertently be affected and restricted for our own survival. This is because we’ve got to protect every life.”
The president said the government was simply trying to limit the spread of the virus with all the measures in place.
