Now’s the chance to get rid of the dead wood in Cabinet, Ramaphosa

So … the last two weeks never happened. We now have to push the reset button on our lives and start from the beginning, facing another three weeks under virtual house arrest as the government tries to well and truly see off the coronavirus threat.

And while President Cyril Ramaphosa did hint about some relaxation of the stringent lockdown restrictions, this is unlikely to happen before the end of the extended movement freeze at the end of April.

There have, as expected, been two sorts of reaction to the announcement of the extension by Ramaphosa on Thursday evening.

Many are saying that the decision is the only one which should be taken in the circumstances. Those circumstances are that, while our infection and death rates look better than expected, we could still be waiting for the tsunami to hit us.

The countries of the West which were slow to move on movement restrictions appear to be paying the price for that lethargy in a huge wave of hospitalisations and deaths.

We do not have the resources in the public or private health sectors to cope with that sort of flood.

On the other hand, there are many critics of Ramaphosa and the government who argue that the cure might well prove to be much worse than the disease.

This is because hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs and income – either temporarily or permanently – and that this will deal a death blow to an economy already on its knees.

It will significantly increase poverty across the country – and poverty kills people.

While there are merits in both arguments, we believe that, at this particular juncture in our history, we have to trust the government and its experts. In saying this, we are well aware that the ANC administration has done very little to earn the trust of the citizens of this country – in fact, its greedy, corrupt and inefficient members have done just the opposite, especially over the past decade of state capture.

Yet, there are good people and capable scientists advising Ramaphosa and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has been a stand-out civil servant in the way he has handled his portfolio during the crisis. Most of them, however, are in uncharted territory when it comes to how to handle a pandemic … as is the rest of the world.

What we can say about the government’s current approach is that it will save lives.

It is heartening to see that Ramaphosa and his Cabinet will take cuts of 30% of their salaries, ostensibly to share the financial pain many of us are already feeling. However, we would suggest that this pay cut becomes permanent because our civil service is already bloated.

Further, we would suggest that now would also be a good time for Ramaphosa to get rid of the dead wood.

These would be people like Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, who blatantly flouted lockdown rules by having lunch with former deputy higher education minister Mduduzi Manana, one of the kings of bling.

However, there is still a concern that the draconian measures which have been applied to cope with Covid-19 may remain, in some shape or form, once the country is over the worst.

We must all strive to ensure that our constitution and our precious human rights do not also become some of the unintended fatalities of the coronavirus.

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