Forget corona social distancing – just back off a little please

On the concept of these are the things we should retain beyond Covid-19 space, American singer-songwriter, Kid Rock said, “I take the invasion of my personal space very seriously…”

In the past six months, I have enjoyed being 1.5m or 2m apart from people in public spaces. And if there was one thing I could ask we maintain as South Africans beyond the Covid-19 pandemic, it would be the social distancing.

My contention has always been that we have to respect each other’s personal spaces. Social distancing gives us a tremendous opportunity to breathe, feel safer in our spaces and not have certain people breathing down our necks.

It continuously eliminates the anxiety and constant worry that someone is watching you as you insert your cellphone password or online login banking details.

The radius of two metres away from any other person has reinforced the importance of respecting people’s personal spaces.

Pickpocketing isn’t much of an issue anymore in the Pretoria CBD, where it was the most common practised way to steal money. Of course, the above mentioned isn’t the only thing that we should take with us beyond the Covid-19 period. There are things that really have to be maintained even when we do away with alert levels.

There are certain things that really humbled us and gave us a new level of respect for certain professional workers.

We now know that teachers and nurses have some of the most serious jobs in our nation. Having kids at home 24/7 and helping them with homework and classes is something that needs certain skills.

Parents have acknowledged this and they now appreciate teachers more. The lockdown forced people to do things that they wouldn’t have done had Covid-19 and the lockdown not happened.

Many people spent time with their families more than they usually did. Parents were helping their children with homework, as many homes turned into work offices and classrooms.

It was so beautiful and refreshing to see people being more conscious of their surroundings while doing normal things.

People were not consumed by things such as work and traffic. Furthermore, this lockdown has cost us a lot. But we have improved our hygienic behaviour. Although some men still don’t wash their hands or forget to do so, the number of gents who do it has improved significantly in public toilets. We should continue to clean after ourselves, keep our hands clean and never invade each other’s spaces.

Most of the lockdown regulations have proven to be progressive ways to govern our daily social lives. We should not go back to a place where men and boys don’t wash their hands for 20 seconds, sanitise their hands and be ready to help the next person.

Above all, I pray that we continuously social distance, because it is the right thing to do for us to not feel suffocated, invaded and annoyed by people who don’t play by the rules.

As Robert Sommer said: “Personal space refers to an area with invisible boundaries surrounding a person’s body into which intruders may not come.”

Phambili nge social distancing, phambili!

Kabelo Chabalala.

Chabalala is the founder and chairperson of the Young Men Movement (YMM)

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