The African National Congress (ANC) welcomes the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa that the lockdown period will be extended. This includes measures that are currently underway to mitigate the unintended impact of declaration of a national state of disaster that was meant to disrupt the spread of coronavirus. Most of the existing lockdown measures will remain in force until the end of April.

1. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09 APRIL 2020
ANC WELCOMES PRESIDENT'S DECISION TO EXTEND THE LOCKDOWN PERIOD
The African National Congress (ANC) welcomes the announcement by President
Cyril Ramaphosa that the lockdown period will be extended. This includes
measures that are currently underway to mitigate the unintended impact of
declaration of a national state of disaster that was meant to disrupt the spread of
coronavirus. Most of the existing lockdown measures will remain in force until the
end of April.
The ANC fully concurs with the President that ending the lockdown too soon risks
a resurgence of the infection rate.
We commend the people of our nation for their discipline and compliance since
the lockdown was announced two weeks ago.
This has demanded a lot of sacrifices on the part of individual citizens, whose
personal freedoms are severely curtailed, but have rallied behind government’s
drastic measures intended to defeat the invisible enemy. As a nation, we must do
everything we can to prevent the possible loss of lives that will certainly occur if
we do not act.
We call on the rest of society to support government as it embarks on a roll-out of
a community screening and testing programme across all provinces.
An array of measures undertaken by Government to provide support to
businesses in distress, workers facing loss of income, the self-employed, informal
businesses and other forward looking economic interventions are a step in the
right direction especially during this difficult time in our country.

2. We welcome the exemplary, humane and noble gesture displayed by the
President Deputy President and the entire Executive including Premiers by taking
a one-third cut in their salaries for the next three months in order to donate to
the Solidarity Fund. We call on other executives in the private sector and state-
owned entities including MP’s, MPL’s, Councillors to follow this courageous act.
We wish to thank all sectors of society for uniting behind Government in this
battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let’s all continue to Stay At Home - it’s the best way we can protect and defend
each other against the pandemic.