Cape Town - The province will closely scrutinise the level 1 regulations when they are released, so as to provide consistency and certainty as the economy opens up to tourism, according to Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC David Maynier.
Speaking during Premier Alan Winde’s weekly digital press conference, Maynier said the details were likely to be complicated.
“Of course, the devil is in the detail and so we will have to carefully scrutinise the regulations when they are released. We will assess the impact of the capacity restrictions for indoor events and determine whether this will allow us to host bigger, anchor events like the Mining Indaba and Africa Oil Week,” said Maynier.
“In addition, we also need clarity on passenger cruise ships for leisure which are also important to the tourism and hospitality industry in the province and which we will work to open safely at the appropriate time.”
On the province’s economic recovery plan, Winde said the lessons learnt by the provincial government during the last six months of the pandemic have led it to want to put in place an organic plan that will allow for innovation.
“It was not about ticking boxes. Whatever happens, it’s never going to be a hard fixed plan. It’s going to be a draft set of agreements and framework that we work to because we want to be nimble so that we can enable and support the economy.
“This will help us make sure that our recovery has the same sort of energy and focus for the economy as we did in making sure we flattened the curve. We’ll be doing exactly the same thing to minimise pandemic number two, which is starvation and hunger and that enables the economy.”
Head of Health Dr Keith Cloete said ongoing vigilance was required, via a comprehensive surveillance strategy, to detect any resurgence in cases and to avert a second wave.
Cloete also spoke about the emotion he felt when in the morning he received a message about the final handover of the CTICC site.
“I got a bitter-sweet WhatsApp this morning that the space we occupied at the CTICC has now been formally handed over to its owners,” said Cloete.
Cape Argus