Protect the integrity and success of lockdown

Whatever is going to happen with the numbers of people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa, it will be very difficult for any citizen to turn around and point an accusing finger at the government.

Sure, South Africans must not suddenly develop amnesia about the past 26 years, or pretend that the misrule did not happen.

But in facing this imminent danger threatening to wreak havoc in society, one of the best things that can be done is to give credit where it is due. President Cyril Ramaphosa and his administration have put their shoulders to the wheel in this case.

Mistakes were made and will continue to be made, but for the first time in recent history South Africans have witnessed government conveying a common message.

Pulling off a lockdown of this magnitude in a country as diverse and unequal as SA is no mean feat, and it still requires an extraordinary focus to detail going forward.

The most obvious area requiring government’s attention from this point onwards will be those areas of society not covered by the safety net that has been created to provide some comfort for the employed.

SA has a lot of people that depend on daily income based on activities which they can only carry out under normal circumstances. These people form an essential part of the economy through the services they provide; be it gardening, plumbing or even that young man who sells his wares on the train or at the taxi rank.

Provision must be made to extend the net to cover those who are self-employed but also unregistered informal small business owners.

Government has announced ways for informal street traders who sell food to trade again, but selling to whom?

It is very encouraging that various ministries in government are adjusting ways in which lockdown rules are being applied to ensure that provision is made for exceptional cases.

This lockdown will achieve its purpose only when all potential sources of unrest are dealt with in good time.

It is commendable that the government wants to use this period to register informal businesses like spaza shops, but it is inhumane to refuse to recognise that even an undocumented foreign immigrant running an unregistered business employs people who will fall through the net.

When all of this is over, it is clear where the focus of the small business ministry needs to be: finding ways to ensure every informal trader is registered.

The integrity and success of this lockdown and any possible extension thereof depends on government’s ability to not only communicate clearly, but on its ability to get the public, especially the economically hardest hit citizens, to move along agreeably.

Governments that have seen what can be referred to as successes in ensuring the spread of the virus is contained are mostly highly educated and technologically sophisticated societies like Singapore, where every single citizen can be reached by government in no time.

SA must not only focus on reaching citizens, but reaching citizens with solutions to their problems in hand. The West faces economic ruin because most sectors of their economies have ground to a halt; South Africa’s biggest challenge is ensuring that its social security net covers areas it has never covered before.

Given the socio-economic baggage that SA carries, government needs to step up to the new challenges for the sake of every citizen.

Sydney Majoko.

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