After two years of nationwide lockdown and restrictions to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday announced that we are returning, as far as possible, to the lives that we lived before the pandemic.
Though careful not to declare that the pandemic is over, Ramaphosa sought to place the country on a path to resume normal life by stating: “We are now ready to enter a new phase in our management of the pandemic.
“While the pandemic is not yet over, and while we remain cautious, we see many parts of our daily life returning to normal. We see our economy returning to full operation. We feel the fear and despair of the last two years lifting from our shoulders.”
His announcement is significant in a country that has been battered by the pandemic with sectors such as tourism bleeding, rising unemployment levels, inequality and worsening poverty.
Even though some critics have cautioned against the risks of moving too soon to scrap all restrictions, the easing of regulations on negative Covid-19 tests for travellers will undoubtedly boost the ailing tourism economy and save jobs.
Furthermore, the reopening of cultural, sports and other events is a welcome relief to yet another sector that has been on its knees since the start of the pandemic. Football fans will now be able to return to the stadium, unlocking opportunities for a value chain of small, informal businesses such as traders.
But it would be naive not to learn valuable lessons from other countries that have adopted a similar strategy on lifting restrictions. The Netherlands, for example, with higher levels of vaccine uptake than SA, was last year forced to admit poor judgment in its decision to lift restrictions too soon as infections rose to nearly 10,000 in two weeks.
As the president also admitted, the experiences of other countries where restrictions were lifted were followed by a surge in infections and deaths. We cannot afford any more restrictions and to overwhelm our ailing health system.
It is in this context that we welcome the lifting of lockdown restrictions to help the SA economy recover and ease the burden of unemployment and poverty that has been worsened in the past two years.
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