The Covid-19 pandemic has not only revealed flaws in the way the ANC governs, but has also shown the DA and EFF’s true colours, argues Ivor Sarakinsky.
In a strange way, early lockdown was so much easier to handle. The threat was clear. The message was coherent. We all braced ourselves for the storm.
When it didn’t arrive, we deceived ourselves into thinking we had beaten it. We got complacent and we got back to as close to normal as possible. Now, 100 days later, the relentless Tsunami of ever-increasing infection and death have arrived. We should be locking down now as we did back then.
The numerous controversies and policy flip-flops have blurred 100 days into a sequence of bite-size events. The regulations restricting movement were always going to be controversial in a society well-known for non-compliance. After all, we hardly obey traffic regulations.
Some ministers, such as Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, were shocked to discover that their aura of entitled impunity cracked and that they are, sometimes, held accountable for their actions. Similarly, the courts have rejected, firmly, regulations that are inappropriate – and all of this is potentially positive for bolstering accountability and oversight in post-Covid-19 South Africa. Hopefully, the precedents that were set will now become commonplace.
With hindsight, the whole regulations process could have been different. Instead of getting bogged down in micro-legal compliance, the focus could have been on the spirit and objective of the lockdown – build infrastructure and change behaviour through positive messaging. This would have avoided the roast chicken, pyjama and open shoes fiasco.
A case of collective goal displacement has characterised the whole of lockdown so far. We fight and squabble, and even head to the country’s highest court to dispute minutiae or even the lockdown itself. The legal profession and judiciary have been busier than normal with all sorts of challenges to and in defence of the regulations.
It’s enough to drive one to drink – at least that became possible later on in the lockdown. Smokers will have to wait until the courts find time to hear that case – already delayed for less than transparent reasons.
Meanwhile, infection and mortality increase. There is still no cure. No vaccine either. But that does not mean we should continue as normal as so many businesses and ideologues propose.
Voluntary compliance to social distancing through pragmatism and positive messaging might be more productive – at least for many who felt the full brunt of authoritarian heavy-handedness when taking their walk, shopping, or just living in high density areas.
The basics of distancing, masks and hand washing might have been better promoted and that should have been the focus from the start.
But 20/20 vision is the only exact science.
Rising unemployment
And then there is the issue of the economy and employment. Unemployment is rising, at a rate only marginally slower than the rate of Covid-19 transmission, and the strict lockdown has damaged large parts of the economy – with many businesses closing.
Hardship is more widespread and inequality is increasing and widening. At the beginning of the lockdown, these consequences were expected, but they were moderated by the ambitious and extensive financial support packages announced for small enterprises and individuals. Three-and-a-bit months later, we see how inefficient the structures and processes are in getting desperately needed financial support and food to those who need it.
There is now no room to hide. It is clear that South Africa has an incapable state, and “development” isn’t even a part of the descriptor any longer. Yet various political parties and experts still call for more state intervention and more expenditure, even in the context of ineffective intervention and wasteful expenditure.
These proposals seem odd; after all, the SIU (Special Investigating Unit) is investigating theft from the Social Relief Fund, while at least one mysteriously wayward UIF payment has been exposed. The predators inside and outside public institutions don’t see a pandemic, they see opportunity.
In the Emergency Budget statement presented by the minister of finance last week, he announced that municipalities would receive R20 billion. This confirmed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise, at the start of lockdown, for the finance minister having to find the money.
Shortly after, the Auditor-General released his findings on the 257 municipalities in South Africa. The findings demonstrated that most municipalities can’t manage their usual expenditure, thereby questioning their ability to ensure that the money for water, sanitation and basic hygiene infrastructure will be used effectively and efficiently. Predators are circling at local level too, eyeing this large allocation, no doubt.
While all of this plays out, investigations that were under way pre-lockdown are starting to produce results, and we are immediately distracted by the arrest of those allegedly involved in the plunder of VBS Bank. The ripples of culpability lead to another circus sideshow where suspended ANC officials are allowed back into the fold. At least one Limpopo ANC official objected to that, publicly, but the NEC, clearly, as the cliché goes, is not going to let a good crisis go to waste.
But it’s not just the ANC that understands the fine art of shooting itself in the foot.
The DA’s Federal Chair has since out-performed her previous worst on Twitter. Against all available evidence, she claimed that there is now more racist legislation in South Africa than in the apartheid era – which provided even more distracting political theatre. The DA officials, who rightly raised concern over the brutal actions of the security services in the early part of lockdown, are now remarkably silent when the City of Cape Town metro police assault and humiliate a man in full public view. Political hypocrisy does not seem to rest in times of natural disaster.
The EFF has been remarkably silent during lockdown, apart from a showy press conference to supposedly answer allegations of involvement in the VBS plunder. Their support for an ongoing ban on alcohol can mean only one thing – that crates of the finest Scotch and champagne have already been procured. The continued support for the ban on cigarette sales, however, is unlikely to be the result of a stash of fine Cuban cigars and more likely to be due to illicit tobacco sales making a killing under the lockdown smoking ban.
Fragility of SA’s institutions
100 days after the declaration of the lockdown, we are a bit older. Some are hopefully wiser. We may now know more about Covid-19 than we did at the beginning. It is increasingly appearing to be a much more pernicious virus than initially thought. Instead of fighting in public, the academic research community should be focusing on its medium-to-long-term effects on human health. No more public sideshows, even if South Africans love them.
What Covid-19, and the vicissitudes of the lockdown have done, is expose the fragility of South Africa’s public and private institutions. The economy will not easily get back to where it was. All tiers and spheres of government can no longer camouflage their mismanagement, poor performance and governance fault lines and failures.
South Africa has been laid bare. We can all now see the flaws and the debt burden for future generations loom large.
This makes solution-finding a bit easier, but will society be up to the challenge? More importantly, will the government be up to the task?
– Professor Ivor Sarakinsky is at the Wits School of Governance.
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