Students call for lockdown restrictions to be relaxed

North-West University (NWU) students have joined calls by politicians and media personalities for removing lockdown restrictions because of the hardship and difficulties it brings.

With the country now approaching two full months under the Covid-19 lockdown, the calls to relax or end the strict regulations have intensified.

Nthabiseng Majeng (25), a BA communications student at the NWU’s Potchefstroom campus, said her academics are affected in a negative way by the lockdown extension.

“I stay in Ikageng, Potchefstroom. There is no connectivity, and it is extremely difficult to get my work done. Since the lockdown, we have been expected to work online, and with no connectivity, it is next to impossible to work from home,” Majeng said.

Tebogo Phokungwane (23), a BA Pastoral Psychology student at the NWU’s Vaal triangle campus, also says she is struggling to cope. “I thought the lockdown would end quickly and we would be able to go back to campus. I don’t have proper devices to study remotely, so, I thought we would be back to campus by now and I would be able to catch up,” Phokungwane said. “I understand that there is a lot to take into consideration but the lockdown extension is affecting us badly,” she added.

The Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, announced on Saturday that 33% of students, mostly some final-year and postgraduate students, will be allowed to go back to campus when the lockdown level moves down to level 3. This means many students will still have to study from home.

Majeng and Phokungwane added their voices to those of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, DA leader John Steenhuizen, radio personality Garreth Cliff, politician Herman Mashaba and many others, calling for restrictive lockdown regulations to end and for the rules to be implemented with more respect for human rights. 

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said it is concerned about the extent to which, in recent weeks, the country has seen measures that are “arbitrary, officious, petty and inhumane. We are concerned with the paternalistic nature of many of the regulations, the lack of justification, transparency, and accountability as well as the numerous reports of law enforcement humiliating, torturing, assaulting and even killing people.”

Steenhuisen issued a statement calling the lockdown irrational. “The lockdown is not a rational strategy and has not been so for weeks. It is irrational and disproportionate to the scale of the risk that Covid-19 poses, relative to other risks. And it has not been supported by an adequate safety net for poor people and small businesses,” Steenhuisen said.

According to Steenhiusen: “President Ramaphosa is being disingenuous in suggesting that the lockdown has saved lives. It has merely delayed the peak. But the peak is inevitable whether we lockdown or not.” 

Another opposition party that has raised concerns is the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus). The party leader, Dr Pieter Groenewald, said in a statement that “the FF Plus will approach the High Court with an urgent application to challenge the validity of the National Disaster Management Act.”  Groenewald said, “the party is going to request the court to find that the government is abusing the act, which will mean that the announced state of disaster and the associated regulations are unconstitutional”. 

Media personality Cliff also wrote a letter to the president requesting the president to “end the national lockdown”. According to Cliff, the public is afraid of the havoc the lockdown is wreaking on the economy, on people’s lives and livelihoods. “The public receives fewer and fewer explanations from ministers and more and more capricious, some would say spiteful, regulation. Our patience grows thin, and in tandem, your tax collection runs dry. When you speak of a social compact, it goes both ways. You have to take your boot off our throats,” Cliff said.

The former mayor of Johannesburg and founder of a new political party The People’s Dialogue, Herman Mashaba, echoed the concerns of those who said that an extended, highly restrictive lockdown would ultimately cause far more harm than the virus could on its own.

The Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, also disagrees with some of his colleagues about some lockdown restrictions. Mboweni said, “the lockdown had brought the economy to a virtual standstill and the government could not collect revenue.” 

President Cyril Ramaphosa has responded to those complaining about the lockdown regulations. According to  News24, Ramaphosa has fired back at the critics who believe the lockdown restrictions should be immediately lifted, by saying “of course not everyone” will agree with the government.

“We are not stuck on level four – I need to make that very clear. We are going to migrate to level three so that we can loosen up a number of restrictions, in order for the economy to start operating  again. We have said from the onset that our purpose is to save lives and at the same time to save livelihoods,” Ramaphosa said.

The President announced on Sunday night that the country will move to level three on 1 June, but many restrictions remain in place. The sale of cigarettes will not be allowed and many “high-risk” businesses such as tourism establishments and beauty services will not be allowed to open their doors.