Western Cape Premier Alan Winde ramped up his call for an end to the national State of Disaster, fearing that it might be rolled over again for a month as its next end date of 15 March looms.

"There are simply no compelling reasons for the extension of the national State of Disaster," Winde said on Friday. "We need to normalise our Covid-19 response through existing public health measures and empower and enable provinces to respond in the future."

The national State of Disaster has been in place since March 2020, and its accompanying regulations have ranged from the prohibition of the sale of cooked chicken or sports leggings, to a complete ban on the sale of alcohol and cigarettes.

The last notice of 14 January stated that the State of Disaster would be extended to continue "augmenting the existing legislation and contingency arrangements" by the state to address the disaster.

The State of Disaster usually also allows the release of special funds that are used to mitigate a disaster.

On 5 March, the first confirmed case of Covid-19 was announced in South Africa. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the spread of Covid-19 a pandemic, and South Africa followed suit with a hard lockdown at the stage when 61 cases were confirmed.

The national coronavirus command council (NCCC) became the central authority on the movement of people and goods in South Africa during the pandemic.

Although more relaxed now, many regulations are still in place, such as those on mask wearing and the amount of people allowed in a confined space, such as university lecture halls.

Winde wants them all gone.

He said that he had been pushed from pillar to post since he wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa on 11 February, to ask for a timeline to back up the president's commitment in the State of the Nation Address that the State of Disaster would end.

"In response, the Presidency asked that I instead engage with the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who then, in turn, proposed that the issue should rather be discussed at the President's Coordinating Council (PCC).

"No clear date or time was provided as to when this would take place."

So, Winde has now called on Ramaphosa to urgently convene the PCC to discuss this and he wants the meeting to take place well before 15 March.

"Taking this important step should not take this long. I called for the end of the national State of Disaster and for the publication of a roadmap to end the disaster in October last year already. The national government has had more than enough time to prepare."

Winde's motivation is that business can go back to normal again for the sake of people's jobs and to address unemployment.