It was the announcement South Africans have been waiting for — the lifting of the national lockdown and its replacement by measures which continue to press the need for social distancing while allowing for the gradual reopening of the country’s economy.
It appears more of the decision-making work in this next phase of the fight against Covid-19 will be devolved to cabinet ministers and provincial premiers, managing respectively their sectoral or geographic responsibilities.
We appreciate that attention must be focused on the provinces and metros where the virus has taken root and that parts of the country where the infection rate remains low must be released from the onerous national lockdown.
Similarly, those economic sectors which can and must be reactivated, must be allowed to do so.
However, we are not convinced that the SA state is able to implement a more tiered and nuanced policy.
While the government has generally shown excellence since the state of disaster was declared on March 15, not all ministers — and certainly not all premiers and MECs — have consistently covered themselves in glory.
Police minister Bheki Cele has allowed his apparently innate tendencies towards the autocratic to take over, pushing aside the rights-based culture which the constitutional era has engendered among the citizenry.
Transport minister Fikile Mbalula’s serious tone belies his buffoon-like missteps when managing the taxi industry or barking orders for traffic officials to arrest drivers at the side of the road.
The decision by trade and industry minister Ebrahim Patel to hold fast to the ban on hot food and in-house baked goods being sold by supermarkets, spaza shops and roadside vendors came across as egregiously offensive.
In the Eastern Cape, we remain concerned regarding both the ethical disposition of some — politicians, public servants and business people — and the general capacity of the public sector to deliver services effectively and timeously.
We are not convinced that the SA state is able to implement a more tiered and nuanced policy
Moreover, we also assert our country’s unitary status and caution against rethinking the basic rights and obligations we have as free citizens of the entire country.
This is critical, especially given the apparent predisposition of some throughout the various tiers of government to abuse the authority the constitution allows them, at the expense of the people they are meant to serve.
Rational and principled leadership is needed more now than ever before, rather than antics which belie facts, sow confusion and/ or introduce tangential issues to the national discourse.
