MP Dean Macpherson. Picture: African News Agency (ANA)
THE DA has hit back at the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) after it was announced that people would not be allowed to transport alcohol over the Easter weekend.
Earlier today, Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma announced that anyone caught travelling with alcohol between Friday and Monday will be arrested.
The DA spokesperson on Trade, Industry and Competition, Dean Macpherson, slammed the "ridiculous regulation".
"This is just another heavy-handed restriction by the NCCC in a long line of them since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, that criminalises ordinary citizens while true crime flourishes," he said.
He added that more people have been arrested during the pandemic for breaking irrational regulations than there have been vaccinations in South Africa.
"The NCCC never seems to have its eye on the prize – South Africa being fully open, and our citizens safely vaccinated against Covid-19. SAPS has often enforced irrational lockdown regulations in a brutal fashion, and the DA is very concerned that this regulation could give rise to police brutality over the long weekend," Macpherson said.
Speaking during a briefing this morning, Dlamini Zuma said that over the weekend, the police would be doing roadblocks and people would not be allowed to carry alcohol from one place to another.