CR: lockdown to ease by June, but you still can’t buy ciggies, flipflops; Patel clothing farce; property price plunge

By Jackie Cameron

• The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to sack Trade, Industry and Competition Minister, Ebrahim Patel for a series of bizarre decisions – not least of all his latest which is to legalise the types of garments people will be allowed to buy during the Covid-19 shutdown. The DA says the list is “frankly mad” and seems to have been plucked from Alice in Wonderland. According to the regulations:

1. You can buy shirts so long as they are promoted “to be worn under jacket coats and/or knitwear” which is ridiculous and insulting to South Africans’ intelligence;
2. You may only buy crop bottom pants so long as they worn with boots and leggings which is just ridiculous;
3. And finally, you can only buy “closed toe” shoes which is just laughable. To put it bluntly, Minister Patel has become the laughing stock of South Africa with these regulations, says the party. These regulations are nothing other than the continued paternal obsession by Minister Patel and the ANC to dictate to South Africans what they can and can not do, it says. “It is reminiscent of how people were forced to live during the existence of East Germany. It may be acceptable in a communist state but not in a free country like ours,” the DA adds.

• A retired judge has slammed South Africa’s lockdown, saying it no longer passes the rule of law tests. Rex Van Schalkwyk, Chairman of the FMF Rule of Law Board of Advisors and a former Supreme Court Judge, examines the house arrest to which the entire population has been subjected for the past several weeks, probing whether the lockdown remains illegitimate, and therefore tyrannical. Among his reasons for concern: 1) the proportion of deaths to infections is a minuscule proportion of what was previously predicted – somewhere below 0.5%; and, 2) There is no rational link between some of the restrictions – as examples, the military style curfew and banning alcohol sales – and flattening the curve of the Covid-19 virus. You can find Van Schalkwyk’s analysis on what he calls an “excessive venture into the gratuitous exercise of state authority”, on BizNews.com.
• The National Treasury will put forward a fresh budget on June 24th that takes into account a R500bn stimulus package aimed at easing the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “A revised fiscal framework will also be presented, to account for substantial revenue losses emanating from the economic shock of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown,” it said in a statement.
• South African estate agents are warning sellers to brace for property selling prices to plunge by 20-30%. For buyers, it’s looking like an excellent time to pick up a bargain or get a foot on the property ladder, though they are likely to be thin on the ground as the economic cost of Covid-19 containment leads to the loss of thousands of jobs. And landlords are likely to struggle with at best two-thirds likely to keep up with payment, according to FNB.
• A look at how stocks were trading on the JSE  – late on Wednesday Telkom was the best performer, jumping 7% while Sasol was the big loser, shedding about 5% of its value.
• President Cyril Ramaphosa updated the nation on lockdown plans late on Wednesday night. He has announced that the lockdown is expected to ease further, to varying degrees across the country, by the end of May. He apologised for government short-comings in the Covid-19 containment strategy but stopped short of allowing South Africans to buy cigarettes, booze and flipflops.