As expected, President Cyril Ramaphosa has moved the country down to alert level 2 – from alert level 3 – and eased lockdown restrictions. This is welcome, but also a reminder of how blunt lockdowns are as a tool of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic – we need a durable solution to keep our economy open and to learn to live with this virus like other nations.
Over the past few weeks, the country has seen a steady decline of Covid-19 infections and fatalities and the two coastal provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape are exiting the third wave of this dreadful virus.
Therefore, it was inevitable that the government would have to allow more economic activity to resume to strengthen the green shoots of recovery. Establishments like restaurants and bars – which were hard hit by the lockdown – have been given an extra hour to trade as the dusk-to-dawn curfew has been relaxed, and alcohol traders can sell alcohol for five days.
These will provide some relief to these establishments especially now we are moving into summer. But these stop-start measures are a temporary solution. They will not solve our problems of slow growth, high unemployment of 44% (when including discouraged workers), poverty and inequality.
We are fortunate that an unexpected tax windfall from mining taxpayers – benefiting from high commodity prices – has made it possible for the government to extend the R350 special grant (being earned by any South African who doesn’t currently receive a social grant). This has helped prevent a humanitarian crisis of hunger and starvation.
However, relief measures such as this grant also come with their own problems. For a start, once introduced, they are hard to discontinue.
A more durable solution lies in growing the economy, and the economy will only grow if it is open and operating without restrictions.
The solution is to vaccinate two-thirds of everyone who lives in SA to achieve population immunity. Not only will vaccination slow down the spread of the virus and lessen the severity of illness, it will also ensure that many economic activities stay open.
The rich world is already reaping the rewards of vaccination and will soon be strengthening the double shots with a booster vaccine for its population. Also, rich-world economies are opening, and steaming ahead, leaving those of the developing world behind damaging lockdowns.
In Africa, for example, only about 3% of the adult population is vaccinated and the continent is facing a severe vaccine shortage. This problem should be urgently addressed. It is heartening to note that Antonio Gutteres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, plans to use this week’s General Assembly meeting to sound an alarm bell of the vaccine deficit.
If not addressed, the vaccine shortage issue will further divide the world and worsen existing inequalities. Within no time, the rich world will shut its borders to unvaccinated travellers from Africa and the developing world, depriving the poor of an opportunity for business and leisure tourism.
Developed countries should urgently release the excess vaccine dosages they are hoarding.
In our country, we are finding ourselves in the fortunate position that we now have sufficient vaccines and all ages can vaccinate even if they are not registered.
However, at about 14m, we still have a long way to go before achieving population immunity.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that vaccine hesitancy is gaining traction. This is, in part, due to an effective disinformation campaign by those opposed to the jabs. It’s also due to lack of accurate information.
Government, labour, civil society and business need to join hands in addressing this problem: a comprehensive communications strategy should be formulated and implemented to provide speedy and accurate information about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine as well as to deal decisively with misinformation and unfounded conspiracy theories about these life-enhancing medicines.
Up until now, the government has been threatening action against spreaders of fake news. It’s time to act on this threat, and ensure the vaccination programme gains traction again.
If we don’t achieve population immunity soon, we will be back under another hard lockdown regime. And our luck of tax revenues to finance the extension of the social protection grant might run out, causing untold hardship for our people.
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