DA preparing court papers to force government to open schools fully

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen says his party is preparing court papers to force the government to open schools fully.

Steenhuisen says the current rotational arrangement at schools, which was created due to the National State of Disaster regulations to mitigate the effect of COVID-19, is no longer necessary.

The DA leader says the time has come for schools to return to normality.

“Most schools are forced to open on the alternative basis because whereby each school child only has 50% of the time. This policy is unjustifiable, irrational, unfair, and down fair outrageous. There is no justifiable reason for continuing with rotational schooling. In the current South African context, the policy is devoid of any benefit to reducing infections. The whole purpose of the policy was to enable one meter of social distancing in the classroom, to reduce pressure in the classroom and the health system, and thereby reduce the spread of the virus.”

The latest coronavirus statistics:

Earlier, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government is examining whether to end the coronavirus State of National Disaster.

Ramaphosa said now that the infection rate has come down and the government, through the National Coronavirus Command Council, is looking into whether alternative methods can be used to manage the pandemic.

The country has been in various levels of lockdown since the pandemic broke out in 2020. Ramaphosa was speaking at the official launch of the NantSA vaccine manufacturing campus in Brackenfell, Cape Town.

“There is a good argument to be put forward that now that we are where we are, should we not examine and look at other methods other instruments that can be utilised. People have all the right to advocate for the dropping of the State of Disaster instrument. We are government; we’ve got to be very rational in everything that we do.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address at opening of the NantSA vaccine manufacturing campus: