South Africans have flooded social media with reaction to the scrapping of the national state of disaster.

After two years of living under lockdown, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday that most of the regulations introduced to curb the spread of Covid-19 have been removed.

Several will remain for a 30-day transition period “to ensure essential public health precautions and other necessary services are not interrupted while the new regulations in terms of the National Health Act come into effect”.

“What this means is that all regulations and directions made in terms of the Disaster Management Act following the declaration of the national state of disaster in response to Covid-19 are repealed with effect from midnight tonight, with the exception of a few transitional measures,” he explained.

These exceptions include: wearing a face mask in an indoor public space, existing restrictions on gatherings, existing regulations on international travel, the special R350 social relief of distress grant; and the extension of the validity of a learner’s licence, driving licence card, licence disc, professional driving permit and registration of a motor vehicle.