Helen Zille criticises Dlamini-Zuma, compares lockdown to 'Nongqawuse and the Great Cattle-Killing'

18 May 2020 - 09:32 By Unathi Nkanjeni
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Helen Zille criticised Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, saying she has used the government's lockdown regulations to exercise control and authority.
Helen Zille criticised Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, saying she has used the government's lockdown regulations to exercise control and authority.
Image: DONNA WATSON

The DA's federal chairperson Helen Zille has again criticised Nkosana Dlamini-Zuma for using the government's lockdown regulations for what she says is “control and authority”, exercising power “for power's sake”.

In a rant on Twitter at the weekend, Zille said the Disaster Management Act, under which the lockdown was declared, gave power to the minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, instead of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“Minister Dlamini-Zuma can delegate the power to make regulations to ministers like [Ebrahim] Patel, [Bheki] Cele, etc, and together these unaccountable ministers become a lawmaking body, without any oversight from parliament,” said Zille.

Zille described some of the measures as irrational, saying that “unaccountable ministers” were governing many aspects of citizens' lives with the set of 40 new regulations.

“When we can leave our homes and for what purpose, whether we can visit family members, what we may buy and wear — without recourse,” she said.

“There is no rational connection between many of the measures taken and the importance of curbing infections. It is power being exercised for power's sake, and the state of disaster can be renewed repeatedly while our economy disintegrates.”

Zille compared the consequences of lockdown to the Xhosa prophet whose prophecies led to a millenarian movement, which culminated in the Xhosa cattle-killing movement in 1856 in the Eastern Cape.

“The consequences will be worse than the tragedy of Nongqawuse and the Great [Xhosa] Cattle-Killing,” said Zille.


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