SA needs unity, selflessness to beat Covid-19

One of the most encouraging developments about yesterday’s coronavirus “crisis day”, when President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a number of restrictions on travel and public gatherings, was that two of the groups involved with the bulk of the wider population – the churches and the taxi industry – are meeting this week to decided what action to take.

The Citizen hopes that, unlike in many other sectors in this country, the talking will be brief and to-the-point and the action will be swift.

Churchgoers – millions of whom are planning to go to Easter services in a few weeks’ time – and taxi passengers will be prime vectors for the virus.

It is imperative that as much is done as possible to limit the increase in the number of infections … and the best way to do that is via intensive and comprehensive health education. That understanding of what the virus is and the threat it poses is woefully lacking in South Africa.

In Limpopo, where the returning South Africans from China have been put into quarantine, some local people believed they would be in danger of contracting the virus from the convoy passing by. Still others believe the returnees should be quarantined elsewhere.

Few realise that, of all South Africans, these people are probably some of the lowest-risk citizens – because they have been quarantined in China for five weeks and have been tested multiple times for the virus and come up negative.

The government’s three-ring circus for the return of the people – masses of soldiers, police vehicles and important government officials – just emphasised the “end of days” scenario, all the while allowing other, very real, transmissions to take place elsewhere unhindered. And therein lies the problem.

This is a government which is, apparently, more interested in spectacle than concrete action. So, while Ramaphosa’s restrictions are to be welcomed, we wonder whether they are too little, too late and whether, like the Polokwane bunfight, might focus attention away from where it is really needed. That is in schools, homes and workplaces, where everyone must start taking this pandemic seriously.

We have to start thinking of other people.

If we have any of the main symptoms of Covid-19, we should isolate ourselves and get tested. Even if we are asymptomatic, we should be scrupulous about hygiene and avoid personal contact.

If we have to miss out on our sport, our travel and our movies and restaurants, so be it.

We have to slow down the spread of the infection.

We cannot stop it but if it happens suddenly and we are caught unawares – as happened in Italy – our health system will be overwhelmed and thousands will die. It also seems inevitable that, even without the new travel restrictions – which will hurt our tourism industry badly – our economy is in for a torrid time as the impact of lost business and absenteeism take their toll.

Businesses will collapse. People will be retrenched. And whatever distant hope there might have been for an economic recovery will be dashed.

That is something we need to prepare for. This crisis will test us as never before as a nation. It is going to need unity and selflessness to overcome this.

More than ever, we are going to need to see that hackneyed, overused phrase, ubuntu, actually in operation.

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