‘SA economy can’t afford tighter lockdown rules’

With President Cyril Ramaphosa due to the address the nation on Wednesday evening regarding government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, concerns have been raised that some Alert Level 2 restrictions could be reintroduced as infection rates rise in some areas.

As usual before an address by the president, rumours of tightened lockdown regulations and other scaremongering flourish, and this time it is no different.

Rumours have suggested that among the actions that could be expected are a return to stricter liquor sales trading hours and restrictions on sectors of the hospitality industry, as the current national state of disaster nears its end on Sunday, 15 November.

Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu confirmed last Thursday that the president would address the nation, as government was concerned that some citizens were “behaving recklessly and irresponsibly as if Covid-19 no longer existed”.

This comes as several European countries have gone back into hard lockdowns or are curbing economic activity and freedom of movement, to curtail a resurgence of the virus.

Mthembu said Cabinet would deliberate the outcomes of the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) during a meeting this week, before Ramaphosa addressed the nation.

While rumours circulate that the state of disaster might be extended too, the economic repercussions of lockdown have harmed virtually all industries, including the healthcare sector.

Speaking to The Citizen, the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) chairperson Dr Glenda Gray explained that government needed to “positively” reinforce the health guidelines of hand washing, mask wearing and social distancing, instead of implementing another hard lockdown.

“The virus is here to stay with us for the next three seasons, and without a vaccine at the moment, a possible surge can be expected. However, to avoid it South Africans need to remind each other to follow the health guidelines, because the virus is just part of the reality that we have to live with today,” she said. “If we do that we will save lives and the economy, because we do not need an extension of the state of disaster due to the consequences thereafter.”

Asked if the redeployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) would help in ensuring that citizens followed the virus safety measures, Gray emphasised that the matter would just upset the public.

“I think a lot of people would want to avoid the SANDF or SAPS [South African Police Service] because of police brutality. Also considering that if the country has another lockdown, it would cause public outrage because people would feel like they are being treated like children,” she continued.

Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt concurred. He said the South African economy would already require “many, many years to get out of this hole that lockdown has pushed us”.

Roodt said the country was already in massive financial trouble before the pandemic, and any escalation of lockdown regulations would be “devastating to the South African economy”.

“I think what we need to do is get rid of this lockdown as soon as possible, of course with certain measures to protect certain vulnerable groups, but any form of tightening of the lockdown should be averted as much as possible. We simply cannot afford to not allow the economy to grow any further,” Roodt said.

He warned that any further tightening would exacerbate the already dire unemployment situation, and lead to a worsening of poverty.

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