Beware of a government going into ‘dictator mode’

An aspect of the coronavirus lockdown which worried advocates of human rights in South Africa was the alacrity with which the ANC went into “dictator mode”.

Claiming the country was being plunged into a “national disaster”, the government forcibly imposed its will through the restrictions – with, on occasion, scant regard being paid to the stipulations of the constitution.

Now, it turns out, they weren’t alone in that retreat into authoritarianism: this week, the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance made public a letter signed by 500 global political and civil society leaders and Nobel laureates, which warned that some governments were using the coronavirus pandemic to “tighten their grip on power”, undermining democracy and civil liberties.

The letter said: “Democracy is under threat and people who care about it must summon the will, the discipline and the solidarity to defend it.”

In this country, democracy was paid for in blood … and no government must be allowed to run roughshod over our freedom in the name of the “greater good” in an emergency.

At the same time, though, we, as citizens, must not abdicate our responsibility to act with care, especially when it comes to the welfare of others.

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