Cyril Ramaphosa is set to address the nation via a television broadcast and a live stream on Monday evening, as he announces the latest in the country’s fight to stem the coronavirus pandemic via a lockdown.
Lockdown latest from South Africa
It’s been a tumultuous weekend for South Africans, whose lives under lockdown have been quite the adjustment. Emergency measures were brought into place last Thursday, but we’ve had some teething problems – and that includes the likes of our SANDF and SAPS officials, too.
Reports of police brutality – facilitated by shows of force from army personnel – have been rife on social media. The Department of Defence have already issued a statement on this matter, warning SANDF officers to avoid any use of “excessive force” from this point onwards:
#COVID19 | ALLEGED ABUSE BY MEMBERS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE AGAINST SOUTH AFRICAN CITIZENS #CoronaVirusSA #SouthAfricaLockdown #Day4 #SANDFDeployment pic.twitter.com/4OggPLuAG5
— Presidency | South Africa(@PresidencyZA) March 30, 2020
Watch the live stream here: What time will Ramaphosa start his address on Monday 30 March?
In an unusually quick turnaround from the president and his team, Cyril Ramaphosa will go live at 19:30 on Monday evening – just an hour after they first announced a broadcast would be made to the nation. This can be viewed on the major news networks and is free-to-air on SABC, but we’ve also got the stream here
[Live stream will appear here. Ramaphosa is expected to begin his speech at 19:30 – you may have to refresh your browser.]
The president is clearly open to the idea of extending the lockdown period if necessary. The situation remains fluid, but rumours – which surfaced earlier on Monday – claiming he will address the nation to announce a longer enforcement of lockdown measures were verified by the presidency this evening. Earlier in the day, Ramaphosa hinted that we could spend more than three weeks behind closed doors:
Source: The South African Read More“It is now abundantly clear that the most effective way for a society to contain the spread of the disease is for the population to remain at home and physically isolated from each other for at least several weeks.”
Cyril Ramaphosa
