ANC stalwart and Old Mutual chair Trevor Manuel has questioned the rationality of some of the rules instituted by the government during the lock-down that has brought the economy to a virtual halt over the past six weeks.
While he would not comment on the economic effect of the lockdown and whether it should be eased, Manuel, SA’s longest-serving finance minister since the advent of democracy, told Business Day that rules should be about saving lives and not bullying people.
He joined other business leaders in condemning SA’s ban of e-commerce, which has been seen as key to keeping trade flowing in a relatively safe manner in many other countries.
The government, which is increasingly under pressure from business and unions to reopen an economy that may contract by double digits in 2020, has also been criticised for regulations — such as limiting time for exercise to a three-hour window — that do not have an obvious link, and even undermine, the stated goal of limiting infections.
The government also banned the sale of tobacco and alcohol, adding to the woes of the SA Revenue Service, which is behind its tax collection target.
Trade union Cosatu on Monday joined voices calling for the lockdown to be eased, saying that the country’s economy could not be run on grants and food parcels.
Andrew Lapping, chief investment officer at Allan Gray, said in an article published on the company’s website last week that the lockdown may cost more lives than it saves.
Rights violations
Another key figure in finance and one of the founders of Coronation Fund Managers, Thys du Toit, last week appealed for the economy to be reopened.
Members of the security forces have also been accused of violating people’s rights, especially in townships and other impoverished areas, raising concerns that the country’s democratic principles are also under threat.
"If you have a constitution such as we have, then it’s clear that the actions that are followed from the constitution and the legislation must be reasonable," Manuel said.
Manuel, one of the four African Union special envoys tasked with mobilising global support for Africa’s efforts to tackle the economic challenges from the pandemic, said the government had "massive blindspots" in how to implement the regulations. State bodies such as the SA Social Security Agency were failing to ensure there was social distancing to safeguard grant recipients queuing up in large numbers.
"If you look at a number of people, I don’t know how
many hundreds of thousands or how many millions of our parents queue for their social old-age pension … how does the country conduct signals out there to our parents to ensure that we don’t expose them?"
E-commerce
"And then we spend time preventing e-commerce because e-commerce will have unfair competition with spaza shops, now tell me that this is rational."
Security forces should focus on ensuring that people understand social distancing and that their "conduct is within the framework of what is reasonable", Manuel said. "The country is not under a security threat, we have a health threat.
"You can’t have members of security forces behaving in the way that they do, because there are no security risks to SA," said the former minister.
"Even if there were, it couldn’t be done under the Disaster Management Act, it would have to be done under the emergency regulations."
With Luyolo Mkentane
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