Not going to defend cig ban, but ciggies, t-shirts, and alcohol constitute AT MOST, say, 3% of the regs and massive prep happening now in SA. The intensive focus on these regs in the media seems a dangerous waste of minds and words that cd be directed at huge Qs ... https://twitter.com/MaxduPreez/status/1264527234741817345

... like: Has the prep the gov’t touted actually been done? Has enough been done? Are there hospitals w/ dangerous death rates? Why do our deaths skew dramatically younger than Europe’s? Is it actually true the WC is testing differently, and if so, why aren’t other provinces?

most of my friends here know the details of the alcohol regs intimately but little of how prepped their area’s ICUs are, where to go if they get sick, the state of SA care homes, the reality in WC—in other words, the serious things for which they should hold leaders accountable

That’s really a shame, honestly, and reflects badly on some portions of the media & folks like @helenzille, in my view. It’s not a binary: get worked up over lockdown regs OR blindly accept bad governance. There are many, many big things to ask gov beyond about lockdown

And they have been asked! But the heavy emphasis on the alcohol regs and the DA-vs-NDZ fight etc is baffling to me. cc: @ChrisRoper @MaxduPreez