A mask has been added to a statue in the Johannesburg CBD, 3 April 2020, during a nationwide lockdown. South Africa's lockdown is an attempt to halt the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Picture: Tracy Lee Stark
It would be easy to use the metaphor of the horse and the stable door to portray the ANC’s musings about taking the country back to lockdown to contain Covid-19.
They were the ones who opened the door in the first place and now the horse – a desperate South African population – is going to be almost impossible to imprison again.
Yet, sadly, in the South African scenario, there won’t be much left of the stable of our economy, either, because the coronavirus restrictions have almost burnt it to the ground.
How is the government going to send people back home who have only just tried to start earning a living again?
How are taxis owners going to react when told they must go back to level 5’s limited operations and 50% capacity restrictions?
How are drinkers going to react if the sale of alcohol is once again restricted?
When the lockdown went into effect, government said it needed time to prepare hospitals to prevent them from being overwhelmed. Not nearly enough was done. And whose fault is that? Not the citizens.
Cynically, the ANC will probably use political logic to inform its decision. People with food and jobs will vote; dead people won’t.
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