BUSA calls for 24-hour curfew in KZN, Gauteng
Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) has called on government to use the current Disaster Management Act to implement a 24-hour curfew in key hotspots around Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Many shops have been looted and damaged, leading to shortages of food, fuel, and other supplies in some parts of the provinces.
Briefing the media on Thursday, the organisation said the government's response to the unrest has not been satisfactory.
"Part of what we are proposing is that the curfew should be in select targeted areas even as it is applied in Gauteng and KZN to manage the movement of people to enable security forces to gain control of the situation," said BUSA President Sipho Pityana.
"The provisions of the National State of Disaster Management make sufficient room for the state to move in and take appropriate action that should contain the situation, we are urging that the full opportunities that those provisions of offer should be used but we are not calling for a state of emergency.”
READ: KZN unrest claims nearly 80 lives: Zikalala
He said businesses need to supply communities with goods and services especially those that have been cut off and a 24-hour curfew may offer security to them to ensure they deliver.
BUSA CEO Cas Coovadia estimated that the cost to the economy runs to billions of rands.
"It is not rocket science, major shopping centers have been severely impacted, trucks have been burnt, goods have been looted so already economic costs have been severe and the short to medium cost is going to be that it is going to take months for those businesses to get back online, it's going to have an impact on employment and food security.”
BUSA is meeting with the government providing them with information on critical assets that need immediate protection.
