There is little to celebrate about easing of rules

There is bound to be considerable relief, bordering on euphoria in some cases, as the country moves from Level 3 to Level 2 of the coronavirus lockdown matrix at midnight tonight.

It’s been a long, long time – a week short of three months, to be precise – since President Cyril Ramaphosa took us down from Level 4 to 3 on June 1.

So, it’s understandable that people will be feeling a new sense of freedom, especially considering the bans on the sale of tobacco products and of alcohol have been lifted.

Another major shot in the arm is the lifting of the ban on inter-provincial travel.

Gyms may also return to operation, although the ban on international travel remains and, locally, gatherings, including funerals, are restricted to 50 people.

Sports fans will have to wait a little longer, because spectators are still not permitted at sporting events.

In metaphorically allowing us out of our prison cells into the exercise yard, Ramaphosa was at pains to reiterate the government’s message: Be careful, wash your hands, wear a mask in public and practice social distancing.

Not doing this, so the warning goes, could provoke another Covid flare-up and, so the implied threat went, result in a return to more stringent lockdown levels,

Yet Ramaphosa and health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize were, we believe, less than honest in claiming that this supposed “second wave” or “surge” has happened in other countries to the extent that the situation was worse than the first round of infections.

That has not happened … so why would it happen here?

This is not to underestimate the possibility of a resurgence in the disease if people simply “go wild” and do not practice the three basic safety rules.

However, throughout this crisis, the ANC has emphasised how well it has been doing and the numbers are a crucial part of that image building process.

Yet, how well are those numbers doing?

We are 25th in the world in terms of population; we have the fifth-highest number of total Covid cases; the 13th highest number of deaths and the 19th highest rate of cases per million of population.

In the one instance where we are better than our population ranking – our deaths per million rate is at 31 – that position is only bound to get worse as the pandemic continues.

Even with the good news that we are passed the point of inflexion of the infection curve (where it stops going up and starts heading down), we could see more than 22,000 Covid-19 deaths by the beginning of November.

The Covid crisis has also exposed how woefully unprepared – despite the time supposedly granted by the lockdowns – were some of our hospitals.

It also, shamefully, showed the true colours of many ANC cadres, who were prepared to siphon of millions in the midst of a grave humanitarian crisis.

Yet, despite the promises of Ramaphosa that such corruption and looting would not go unpunished, it largely has, so far … much like the arms deal and the state capture project.

And, in all this, our economy has been left smoking in ruins in many sectors, as unemployment and poverty hit stratospheric levels.

Time alone will judge whether those actions were necessary and whether the government saved us or savaged us.

What is certain is that, despite the easing of lockdown, there is little to celebrate.

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