President Cyril Ramaphosa is the latest South African incumbent to face the dreaded ‘must fall’ boycott.
South Africans started off the new week with tighter lockdown restrictions amid a growing healthcare crisis that could mirror the horrors we witnessed in India earlier this year.
Alcohol ban rubs SA the wrong way
The president announced, on Sunday evening, that the country would go into adjusted Level 4 lockdown with alcohol sales — for off-and-on-site consumption — prohibited for two weeks.
This, Ramaphosa explained, was a necessary measure to reduce the number of alcohol-related hospitalisations at a time where every bed counts.
The alcohol ban has been widely condemned by industry stakeholders, including the National Liquor Trade Council that has threatened to defy the prohibition.
“We are not going to let this decision by the President stand. We are going to take him on, we are going to consult with our members today. If needs be, it means we will defy this ban. Who is going to support us for the next two weeks? What is better? Breaking the law for supporting our families? For us, we feel that we need to be taken seriously and we will do that, and whatever is necessary,” council conveyor Ntimane warned.
‘Ramaphosa must fall’ rings off on social media
This sentiment was shared by many frustrated South Africans who have pinned the government’s failure to deal with COVID-19 squarely on Ramaphosa.
The country’s snail-paced vaccine rollout has been hampered by the rapid spread of a variant first discovered in India, referred to in virology circles as ‘Delta’. This strain, Ramaphosa warned, “is rapidly displacing the Beta variant, which has been dominant in our country until now.”
The latest infection figures seem to support the president’s concerns about the high transmissibility of this variant.
This graph, compiled by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) tracks the seven-day moving average number of COVID-19 cases per province, between April and June 2021.
On Sunday, a record 15 036 positive cases were recorded with 122 deaths added to South Africa tally of 59 900 COVID-19-related fatalities.
Still, horrifying figures such as these have no bearing on the public’s frustration with the lockdown regulations. Here are some of the reactions we picked from the ‘Ramaphosa must fall’ bandwagon.
It's so sad that so many lives are going to be affected all in the name of greed and recklessness. They are literally taking food out of people's mouths #RamaphosaMustFall pic.twitter.com/58kkXgINVx
— Just_Latoya (@just_latoya) June 28, 2021
The real problem we facing now is not the pandemic, the real problem is corruption in SA. Vote wisely South Africans or else nohlala nikhala
— Lunah Tuc (@YOLO_4_real) June 28, 2021
#RamaphosaMustFall pic.twitter.com/7Exxeav8uq
In simple terms Ranko told his poor voters to go die at home whilst capitalists will be acquiring as much wealth as they can from government and then come to ask for votes again under the guise of Pandemic disrupted us. #RamaphosaMustFall #RamaphosaIsKillingUs
— Zovuyo Veronica Mente (@veronica_mente) June 28, 2021
The same energy we had for Zuma must be given to #RamaphosaMustFall pic.twitter.com/dTPQMmqirT
— Siyanda Jola (@siyanda_jola) June 28, 2021
Normally I would have workers on the floor of my warehouse picking and sending out orders for delivery. Today is a different story, Plenty of alcohol and no staff because of the #AlcoholBan. South Africans are being bullied by Cyril Ramaphosa. #RamaphosaMustFall pic.twitter.com/wqpKVEGpyK
— x (@Wandzz_) June 28, 2021