Spectators allowed at school sports events as state of disaster is extended

Co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has extended SA's national state of disaster by another month. 

Dlamini-Zuma signed an extension, published in the government gazette on Friday, until February 2022 as the country remains under adjusted level 1 of the national lockdown. 

March will mark two years since SA was first put into a state of national disaster when the first positive Covid-19 case was detected in KwaZulu-Natal.

Meanwhile, in a second government gazette published on Friday, basic education minister Angie Motshekga announced that spectators would be allowed to attend school sports events. 

“Spectators at the venue of a sport event are permitted and the number of people permitted at a venue at any time is limited to the number as prescribed under the regulations in respect of gatherings for the particular adjusted alert level at the time.”

Under level 1 regulations, gatherings are restricted to no more than 1,000 people indoors and no more than 2,000 people outdoors. 

“If a venue is too small to hold the prescribed number of people, observing a distance of at least 1.5m from each other, then not more than 50% of the capacity of the venue may be used, subject to strict adherence to all health protocols and social distancing measures,” the amendment to the regulations read. 

DA leader John Steenhuisen on Tuesday repeated a call for an end to the national state of disaster.

“The state of disaster is no longer necessary for managing the virus. On the contrary, it is doing SA more harm than good by undermining our social, economic and democratic recovery,” he said.

“SA needs certainty. Investors need it, tourists need it, teachers need it, schoolchildren need it. Schoolchildren need to go to school full-time, not a couple of days a week.”

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