Covid-19 dominates elections around the world, amplifying voters’ distrust and shining an unflattering light on incumbents and those in opposition. The pandemic has forced a rethink about individual rights versus society’s rights and ignited debates over lockdowns and curfews. In their eagerness to argue individual rights are not always sacrosanct, the pro-vaccine lobby has brought the English utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill to a new generation who hadn’t yet enjoyed him in paperback.
Many go much further than Mill would ever have done, though, and hold up China’s authoritarian government as best-suited to the challenges of a world that will be living with Covid-19 well into the future. It has the obvious command structures, it demands total obedience at the risk of terrible sanction, and it comes with the necessary logistical aptitude. Most importantly, it doesn’t rely on voter approval. Democracy by contrast is deemed unsuitable to the task, too clumsy and permitting of dissident viewpoints to allow for the smooth operation of government.
In countries that don't have the luxury of total control, which is most of the rest of the world either by design or default, Covid-19 and the responses to it drive democratic contest. The pandemic’s biggest scalp to date must be former US president Donald Trump, who was edged out of the White House in a record voter turnout, which pundits said proved widespread disillusionment with his stance on Covid-19, and the fact that the US had the world’s highest Covid-19 death rate. Ironically, Trump had been quick to ensure he and his family were vaccinated, and backed the drive to develop a vaccine in record time. Yet his unsurprising inability to finesse the line between caring about those afflicted by Covid-19 and keeping the economy open earned him widespread wrath. The outcome was a victory for Joe Biden and a shot in the arm for the pharmaceutical and tech interests that have benefited from the pandemic.
In the courting of popularity that is democracy, our local government elections coming soon, will ensure all comments about Covid-19 will be assessed for whether they constitute “electioneering'', and whether they’re being made to promote the party’s interests or to fight the pandemic, which should be our single purpose.
To balance things out, the government banned beach-going and surfing, and even halted the sale of Woolworths rotisserie chicken to spread the burden of misery.
While some governments are paying the price for not having done enough to curtail the spread of Covid-19, our ANC government need not worry it’ll be accused of that. It can boast that last year’s initial lockdown was the longest and harshest in the world, and while its efficacy in limiting Covid-19 is moot, it almost destroyed our economy and put a better life for all beyond the reach of many for generations. It was applauded by the middle classes who relished working from home and gorging on Netflix, but for the masses of the people it meant loss of income, long periods cramped into tiny dwellings, and harassment by security forces whenever they ventured into the open spaces meant to help you stay free of infection. To balance things out, the government banned beach-going and surfing, and even halted the sale of Woolworths rotisserie chicken to spread the burden of misery.
And as we all busied ourselves with trying to interpret the minutiae and connect the dots of Covid-19 regulations, ANC politicians did the one thing they do with peerless efficiency and enthusiasm: loot the public purse. Little wonder EFF leader Julius Malema is able to declare he now opposes “stupid” lockdowns, because they were used as an excuse to loot under the pretext of preparing our health service for the worst. Malema says he will campaign for the upcoming local government elections as if there is no lockdown. In the spirit of opposing white monopoly capital, he is taking on the pharma giants of the West in his demand that the Chinese and Russian vaccines be supplied to South Africans, claiming they are more effective than the Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson alternatives. He refuses to say which vaccine he has had or whether he has been vaccinated at all, despite urging his followers to get the jab.
Now that all the electoral furniture has been rearranged to accommodate the ANC, which had faced the prospect of not competing in wards and metros because of failing to register candidates in time, the party will surely battle to trade on its dubious record in local government. Food parcels will be required in their thousands to blinker voters from the reality of the ruin of once-vibrant municipal entities by councillors who insist on all the luxuries despite presiding over broken towns.
For some of them, the antiviral treatment ivermectin, usually given to horses, is their preferred tipple. It remains to be seen whether the party’s muti-fortified supporters will turn out to vote, or whether they’ll remain neigh-sayers in the bigger political picture.
The DA, which will hold up its record in Cape Town, is battling to square its individualist philosophy with the collective demands imposed by Covid-19. Leader John Steenhuisen argues a vaccine mandate would transgress people’s rights, yet vaccination remains a nonsolution if sections of the population can ignore it in favour of individual rights. So what’s the point of that, then, if only to reassure more traditional voters that bowing to classical liberalism is more important than saving people’s lives?
The Freedom Front Plus is also worth a mention here because many of its supporters who hold the key to small towns also oppose lockdown but are equally wary of the vaccine. For some of them, the antiviral treatment ivermectin, usually given to horses, is their preferred tipple. It remains to be seen whether the party’s muti-fortified supporters will turn out to vote, or whether they’ll remain neigh-sayers in the bigger political picture.
But why should we believe any of them? Throughout the iterations of lockdowns, politicians of all parties have been caught breaking curfew, travelling at will and drinking and partying without regard to social distancing and the law. Is it any wonder that the crisis of trust made worse by inappropriate Covid-19 responses is also compromising the drive to get the majority vaccinated? Now we are being promised football matches and music concerts if we agree to the jab.
That means no fun and games for voters who are not yet vaccinated, unless you count one of Malema’s rallies-without-rules as a cheap outing and a bit of light relief on a spring day.
Sunday Times Daily
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