Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to immediately lift the National State of Disaster, along with the remaining lockdown regulations.

On Wednesday, Ramaphosa said government would consider alternative legislative measures to the National State of Disaster.

Speaking at the launch of a new vaccine manufacturing facility in Cape Town, Ramaphosa referred to falling Covid infections and the need to look to alternative health protocols instead of relying on the Disaster Management Act.

Steenhuisen says the DA challenges the constitutionality of Section 27 of the Disaster Management Act - the mechanism that allows the government to make extra-Parliamentary laws under the declaration of a National State of Disaster.

That matter is currently before the Constitutional Court.

Steenhuisen also wants schools be allowed to open fully, immediately, and is also calling for rotational schooling to be called off.

“There are very low expectations of this week’s matric results announcement, and this is a direct result of the hundreds of school days lost over the past two years. For some time now this rotational schooling has disproportionately affected poor learners, as the top quintile schools have mostly returned to full-time classes. There is no justification for this widening inequality,” he said.

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK’s abandonment of most emergency lockdown measures, including mandatory mask wearing in public and in classrooms. He spoke of trusting the judgment of the people.

The DA leader says Ramaphosa needs to exhibit the same trust.

He warns that the repeated extension of the National State of Disaster creates “a dangerous constitutional convention”, and added that economic recovery will be impossible under lockdown.

Steenhuisen says businesses will remain hesitant to invest and take on staff as long as restrictions are reintroduced.