South Africans’ experience of coronavirus has jolted from decisive action to rebellious outbursts to the downright bizarre and disillusioning.
In mid-March, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster, announcing measures like the immediate imposition of travel restrictions and the closure of schools. He also established a council to deal with the pandemic.
This swift reaction was very well received by the populace: for once there was praise for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party from all spheres. Given apartheid – the system of institutionalised racial segregation – only ended in the early 1990s this was quite an achievement.
Pride swelled for the president acting so quickly and decisively, and for a brief moment South Africa was respected across the world for a solid response to a global and largely unexpected catastrophe.
However, whilst in the UK the public by and large followed the lockdown rules, dissent began in the RSA. Video clips circulated of people partying in the streets, disregarding safety protocols. Like elsewhere in the world there were some protests, but chants that Covid-19 was a “white man’s disease” and yet another racist attack on the black population started to show cracks in a still divided nation.
But even as the infection rate spiked, the corresponding fatalities were lower than the global trend. This could be attributed to the ongoing Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) mandatory vaccination program which has been running for years, or perhaps more likely inaccurate reporting. As it stands, there have been over 20,500 listed deaths from at least 757,000 cases in a population of nearly 60 million.
In May, as Boris Johnson was talking about easing restrictions, poorer communities across South Africa were struggling. The controversial ban on sales of alcohol and cigarettes fuelled a booming black market trade, people brewing booze in their own homes and chaos at night with the army and police patrolling the streets enforcing curfew.
A restaurant owner in Cape Town (who preferred to remain anonymous), said: “At first the response was good but then we had these bizarre laws. I just did not understand why they forbade the sale of open-toed shoes and T-shirts. Somehow this was connected to keeping us warm and healthy but it completely forgot that large chunks of the population don’t even own shoes at all.
“And the cigarette ban – we hate being nannied and that was severely resented, especially since the minister involved has a friend that is a well-known black marketer of cigarettes.
“The scale of the problem is massive because we were already in recession and debt. The country’s electricity provider owes so much money they can never pay it back. The country is trapped by debt. Many people don’t see how it will be resolved.”
Politically South Africa is slipping into darkness. There have been rumours of those in power stealing food parcels and plans to loot private retirement funds, while many provinces preside over the slow collapse of medical services.
As with all countries, coronavirus fatigue has set in. The public are increasingly resisting mandatory safety measures with some looking to conspiracy theories to explain the seemingly unexplainable. The attitude has become one of finding ways to get around the safety protocols instead of staying safe. People’s livelihoods have been pushed to the limits.
One of the strictest lockdowns in the world saw 2.2 million jobs lost in the second quarter of 2020. A retired resident in Hermanus, a small seaside town outside Cape Town, said: “The devastating effect on the economy is very noticeable with the increasing jobless people seeking work on the streets. It’s sad to see.”
For years much of the young talent has been flooding out of the country to the UK, Europe and North America where job prospects are better and while we are yet to see whether coronavirus will accelerate this brain drain the impression is that it may well do.
The situation could be worsened by a schooling crisis.
Gillian Hutton, who lives in the village of Hoekwil with her husband Richard, said: “Education just stopped. Now in this country with the difference between schooling systems that was a disastrous move.
“Wealthy privileged private schools didn’t miss a day, going into online programs with competent teaching staff carrying on as normal. Government schools although more varied, some are very good and would have adapted to an online system fairly quickly.
“However, poorer schools in poverty-stricken areas will have suffered tremendously as access to online learning, household computers, good internet signal and the affordability of data is just not available.
“This has created an academic year with a huge disparity in learning for pupils, while schools were closed far too long making it all a very worrying scenario for the next few years.”
South Africa’s borders are now open with Brits permitted to enter. However my dad Steve – born in Johannesburg but having lived in England all of his life – cancelled his annual trip before the second UK lockdown in November was announced.
“There just wouldn’t be the same freedom in getting around the country I’m used to,” he said. “It was heart-wrenching as I love the country, but the lawlessness seems to have increased.
“The mismanagement in South Africa is extreme and I’m hearing more stories of people being held at gunpoint and having their lives put at risk.
“We’ve always had to be careful but it feels like the risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time is too high.
“I simply would not want to end up in hospital there. Some of the laws passed have been very strange and it just didn’t seem worth going.”
This article was first published by The Telegraph in November 2020
