It seems government has realised there’s only so much it can do

This is a very different government now, compared with the arrogant bunch of fired-up-by-war ideologues and puritans – and the odd gangster – who were running South Africa when the national disaster was declared in March.

They are tired after eight weeks of battle. They are a lot quieter. They are less aggressive. And they are listening.

After an initial meek acceptance by most South Africans that the lockdown was necessary to slow the spread of coronavirus and buy our rulers time to put our crumbling national health house in order, civil society has become more restive and angry.

Partly, that is because of the restrictions themselves – and South Africans do not like to be told what to do.

Partly it is because the abrupt halt to most economic activity has plunged huge swathes of people, who were barely surviving in a tattered economy, into full-blown poverty.

And, partly, the frustration is because many of us feel we are being left in the dark about the facts upon which the government bases it decisions.

Many look at the scale of the virus impact so far – with minimal deaths compared to countries like Italy, France, the UK and the US – and wonder if the medicine of the lockdown was more deadly that the virus itself.

However, finally, it seems, civil society is waking up to the evolving “second disaster” brought about by lockdown … and beginning to chip away, both at the regulations themselves and the government’s willingness to enforce them.

The attitude of the ANC leadership appears to be changing, too.

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize gave the clearest indication of this on Wednesday, when he said the government had done all it could and the rest was up to us.

If the government is passing on the Covid-19 baton to us by easing lockdown, we need to do our part.

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