[imagesource: GCIS]

Over the weekend, and into the early part of the week, a number of political figures began to talk of a potential return to a ‘hard’ lockdown.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala was perhaps the most forthright, stating “we can now safely say that we are definitely going back into a hard lockdown – if there is no urgent and drastic change in behaviour” during a public appearance on Sunday.

Zikalala was far from alone, and it was also confirmed that President Cyril Ramaphosa would deliver one of his 8PM addresses at some stage this week.

You won’t have to wait until then to find out where he stands on the matter, though, because he was asked about it by DA delegate Tim Brauteseth during the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) presidential Q&A yesterday.

Brauteseth said that South Africans were feeling anxious about the rumours, and asked if the president was “prepared to put those to bed”.

Some his response, via News24:

Ramaphosa said he received a report earlier in the day.

“I want to look at the report very closely, and also then have an opportunity in the coming days, possibly next week, to address the people of South Africa on what we now need to do in light of what we are going through.

“I don’t want to be alarmist, I don’t want our people to be alarmed with rumours, such as we are going to Level 3. That is simply not true. And I want to assure everyone that it is not true.”

He added: “If it ever gets there, I will be the one to advise the nation on where we are and where we are going to.

“For now, all we need to do is adhere to our preventative measures. Wear your masks. But we’ll talk about it in the coming week.”

At the moment, honourable member, we are observing the situation. There is no reason to be alarmed.”

From the 2:45 mark, you can see Ramaphosa address rumours of returning to alert level 3 as “simply not true”:

Cue the jokes about whether or not he’s cleared this all with Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

Despite his comments above, I reckon we can expect a solid telling off whenever that 8PM address rolls around.

During the same Q&A session, Ramaphosa admitted that COVID-19 PPE procurement could have been handled better (you don’t say), adding that the SIU had submitted two progress reports to him on their investigations.

Let’s see some people in orange overalls, please.

[source:news24]