EDITORIAL | Renewed Covid-19 measures need buy-in or we will rue the day

SA led the way when it announced a hard lockdown before any Covid-19 deaths had been recorded. In March, when President Cyril Ramaphosa caught most South Africans off guard with the unexpected move, experts largely agreed this was the right thing to do. The country was being proactive in trying to prevent the rapid spread of the coronavirus. It was giving its health facilities time to prepare for what was to come. It all made sense. The public bought into it.

At this point, there were about 340,000 confirmed coronavirus cases around the world. Now we are looking at a global number of 65 million. In our country, there were 1,170 confirmed cases on March 27. This week, our national tally hovered at about 800,000. Yet our compliance with preventive measures now — basics, such as social distancing, hand sanitising and mask wearing — is nowhere near what it was when we were counting the cases in tens.

Today it is hard to imagine it is barely nine months later. So much has happened and changed in this time, it could have been nine years. By far the most devastating consequence of lockdown has been its effect on SA’s economy. Our GDP shrank by 16% in the three months to June from the previous quarter. According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the second quarter, our economy shed 2.2 million jobs. 

There’s also been a lot of action on our political playing fields. In these nine months we’ve seen some dramatic developments. ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule arrested for corruption. A criminal charge against former president Jacob Zuma. A vote of no confidence in Ramaphosa in the national assembly. Initiated by the African Transformation Movement (ATM), there appears to be little support for the move. But it is yet another distraction for our leaders who should be allowed to pour all their energy into managing a second wave of infections without causing complete economic collapse.

It almost seems like an undo-able job. This is why, regardless of the small annoyances some regulations may cause to our daily lives, the country needs to stand by its government leaders. Now is not the time for finger-pointing and infighting and power battles. Our government needs buy-in. It needs respect for the renewed measures rolled out in the worst affected provinces. If we lose focus now, we will live to regret the day. If we are still alive.