Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni has slammed Democratic Alliance (DA) interim leader John Steenhuisen‘s call for the coronavirus lockdown to be phased out.

Steenhuisen says the lockdown is doing severe damage to the economy.

Mboweni has, in a tweet, advised Steenhuisen to “stay in his lane”. Mboweni says Steenhuisen’s call is unwarranted and disrespectful.

The Leader of the DA, Hon Steenhuisen, must stay in his lane. You have no right to instruct our President to open the economy. That is disrespectful and unwarranted. Please delete your tweet!! Hayibo! Thixo!

— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) May 8, 2020

Steenhuisen earlier said the lockdown was doing more harm than the coronavirus itself in South Africa.

He also called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to reign-in his ministers and show some leadership.

The DA says it is speaking on behalf of South Africans when it says there’s growing impatience. Steenhuisen says that’s why citizens are no longer obeying the laws of the Level 4 lockdown.

“We also know that our country’s economy would only withstand a very limited freeze. That is why originally the lockdown had an end date. Three weeks was that it was going to take to source equipment, get hospitals ready and to train nurses and doctors. Level 4 lockdown is the same as Level 5, even more restrictive. We now have a military curfew enforced by more than 75 000 officers, which we didn’t have under Level 5 and this time with deadline in sight,” says Steenhuisen.

The party says the sad reality is that South Africans will lose their jobs during the extended lockdown.

I think that we have a twar in the making here @jsteenhuisen about our parties. Let’s see, do you have the support of all in the DA? My sources tell me otherwise. A 3 year post matrix qualification is important they tell me. Next

— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) May 8, 2020

In this video, DA leader John Steenhuisen says lockdown is doing more harm than coronavirus

Source: SABC