STATEMENT BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD SECRETARY-GENERAL AND MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT
6 APRIL 2020
DA MORE ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT SELLING CIGARETTES THAN FOOD TO THE POOR
When national government published the lockdown regulations, the DA-led Western Cape jumped to challenge the rule forbidding cigarette sales. The party has regrettably not shown similar enthusiasm when it comes to feeding the poor.
The lockdown regulations were amended last Thursday to allow fresh produce markets, spaza shops and informal food traders to sell food products. This was necessary since low-income households were cut off from their usual food sources and were crowding the few formal supermarkets serving residents of townships and informal settlements, negating the rationale for social distancing.
But the City of Cape Town said it had to consult national government on what the amendment means, and my appeal to the Premier to urgently involve the Red Tape Reduction Unit has had no effect.
The language of the amended regulation couldn’t be clearer: “Grocery stores and wholesale produce markets, including spaza shops and informal food traders, with permission from a municipal authority to operate being required in respect of informal food traders.”
It boggles the mind that the DA-led city and provincial governments are dragging their feet and quite flagrantly placing poor people’s health and lives at risk. I have today written to the Premier (again) and the Mayor of Cape Town calling on them to immediately implement the amended regulations.