State has failed us on Covid

Lives versus livelihood.

This has been a polarising debate unfolding in our country and the world over since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

It refers to the delicate balance that governments have to make to enforce lockdowns to push back against rising infections while also mindful of the devastating impact of such lockdowns on people’s income.

In a country such as ours where a third of the adult population is unemployed, we accept that the balance between fighting the pandemic and keeping the economy open is that much tougher.

Yet, it became clear on Sunday following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address that public anger about level 4 restrictions was not so much about the difficult choices before us but is fuelled by government’s own inefficiency and shocking levels of corruption.

Ramaphosa announced stricter level 4 regulations for the next two weeks, which effectively means an early holiday break for schools and the temporary closing of many businesses.

While stricter regulations were necessary in light of the skyrocketing infections, the economic impact of this decision on sectors, businesses and households across the country is catastrophic.

What angers many of us is the understanding that much of this could have been prevented, by not only our own social behaviour but by government getting its house in order to procure and roll out vaccines faster than it is currently doing.

In his address, Ramaphosa failed to take responsibility for government’s role in this crisis.

While we must adhere to the necessary protocols, it is an unsustainable strategy to limit the spread of the virus only by controlling movement.

We need a far more effective rollout of vaccines as soon as possible.

The bottlenecks we are seeing now are inexplicable as the state machinery seems unable to function efficiently and with the agility needed to save lives.

Our reckless behaviour at times is to blame for the devastation we are seeing.

But it would be amiss of us not to lay a sizeable portion of the blame on the people who failed to exercise their constitutional obligation to provide vaccines. 

For every business that may not survive this closure and every household thrust yet again into financial crisis, our government must shoulder the blame. 

At the very least, government must provide an effective and transparent economic recovery plan to cushion this latest blow.