Violent protests: The hard work has only just begun

We always knew we would only realise the full effect the unrest that gripped the country this month had caused at a much later stage.

Aside from the obvious economic setbacks, foreign companies pulling out of future investments and the damage it had on people’s mental state due to the sheer lawlessness the unrest brought, we will feel the repercussions for many years to come. Some predict it will take up to a decade to recover.

Through the chaos, the pandemic seemed to take a backseat. People forgot we were still in lockdown level-4 due to a third wave of Covid infections, which was also causing mayhem with our economy and livelihoods.

Make no mistake, the unrest has had a seriously negative impact on our vaccine roll-out programme as revealed by Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane yesterday. Not only were 47 500 vaccines believed to be destroyed in the unrest, some vaccination sites were closed for more than a week and many people would have not dared leave their houses to visit vaccination sites for fear for their safety.

In some good news, Kubayi-Ngubane revealed what we were all thinking in saying: “All indications are that we have passed the peak of the third wave and the overall number of cases have started to decline. However, we are cautioning and we are extremely worried because of the many gatherings that we saw during the unrest in the two provinces may lead to another surge in numbers.”

Oh dear. At a time when we could ill-afford any further bad news, we are hit with this… Scenes of communities coming together to clean the mess left by looters had been inspirational.

However, the sad reality is that it is going to take plenty more hard work and a sound plan if we are to rebuild this country and emerge victorious in the fight against Covid.