MBOMBELA – For many South Africans, the national lockdown has uncovered a number of glaring issues in our country. The gulf between the haves and have-nots is coming increasingly under the spotlight during a time when we are compelled to stay at home to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
As we edged deeper into lockdown, it became evident that it would be near impossible to regulate the movement of people, especially those with little to no income, as the hunger pangs were being felt in many indigent households. Promises of food parcels which did not materialise in many instances, led law-abiding citizens to flouting the lockdown regulations in search of ways to feed their families.
Soon, murmurs of dissent were heard in disadvantaged areas and the SANDF personnel deployed to maintain lockdown rules made their presence felt. For many, this meant the humiliation of public beatings, summary arrests and fines.
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The thorny issue here is that the lockdown started on March 23 and the majority of South Africans fortunate enough to be gainfully employed, only receive their salaries on or after the 25th of each month. This meant breaking the rules to stock up on necessities and images of long queues at grocery stores flooded our TV screens.
Rural and peri-urban dwellers with no incomes were hardest hit. These are the unseen masses who perform the most menial labour to feed their families. This income was cut short as their movements were restricted and there were no “piece jobs” to perform for the daily loaf of bread. In some quarters, presumably from our more privileged countrymen, their actions were labelled reckless.
In the midst of disappearing food parcels, systems designed for people with access to cellphones and wanton price hikes on essential goods, the man on the street was left with no choice but to seek other ways of earning a living to pay the rent, keep the lights on and the pots bubbling.
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After the extension was announced on April 17, the detractors started singing a different tune. No more calls of swift action to deal with those breaking the lockdown rules, because now, the ban on the trade of alcohol and cigarettes was also being extended. As time progressed, a booming black market was spawned.
Soon, our favourite drinks and cigarettes were being sold at twice and thrice the price. Foreign shop owners reap the financial benefits of this as cabin fever set in and South Africans clamoured for their preferred poison. People working from home soon realised just how expensive data is and soon, the posed photographs captioned, “Working from home” all but disappeared from our social media feeds.
The rural child with no Internet or cellphone access has no way of learning from home and calls for schools to reopen sound almost ludicrous. In areas such as Barberton, where protracted strike action meant close to five weeks of no schooling, regular teaching and learning stopped almost soon after the strike ended, pushing learners further behind.
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Suggesting that schooling continues after the lockdown ends means that some learners will not progress to to next grade while those with access, will. In effect, the chasm between the privileged and the less privileged, will grow even wider. How then do we address this divide?
It has never been clearer than the present that government needs to speed up the process of introducing better schools for all, access to the Internet at affordable rates, better healthcare, more jobs and rooting out corruption in the ruling party’s ranks.
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This is not the first coronavirus, but it is the most widespread. If we have learnt anything at all from Covid-19, it is the deep divisions within our society, the inequalities and how ill-prepared South Africa has been.
The picture is not all bleak, though. What has emerged is the resilience of our national character, how well stand together to help those in need (with the exception of a few), and what we will learn from the Covid-19 pandemic.
