As the third wave of Covid-19 infections batters the country and Gauteng more specifically, leaving untold human misery in its wake, South Africans will be asking themselves if previous sacrifices were in vain.
This is a reasonable question to ask, and SA is not alone in this. When Covid-19, which was first detected in China towards the end of 2019, became a global crisis near the end of the first quarter of 2020, much of the world closed down. The rationale for lockdowns was that they would buy countries time to get their health systems ready so they wouldn’t be overwhelmed.
But by the end of 2020, much of Europe was closed down again. On New Year’s Eve, nine months after Britain first went into lockdown, The Guardian reported that accidents and emergency departments at London hospitals were in chaos with some intensive care units running at 200% capacity. It told of patients having to wait 24 hours.
Something else that will sound familiar to people observing the current scenes in Gauteng is The Guardian telling of patients being forced to stand in corridors, with the infected mingling with the uninfected, and breathing aids being rationed.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson came in for criticism that may also sound familiar, such as the charge that the government waited too long before tightening. He was either indecisive or too determined to keep wildly unrealistic promises such as keeping schools open. Basic education minister Angie Motshekga has also had to make the tough decision on whether to extend the disastrous effect on children’s lives of school closures or open them.
The picture, of course, has long changed in the UK. Even as it faces a third wave, it does so with most people having received at least one jab, meaning it has broken the link between infections, increasing hospitalisations and deaths. Politicians in SA, and specifically Gauteng, might say all this shows that the country’s experience is not unique. We would prefer to look at it as yet another opportunity to learn from others’ experience, not to mention our own, that was missed.
This wave of infections could not have been a surprise to anybody. One need not have been a scientist to predict that the winter months, when people are more likely to congregate indoors, would come with a worsening Covid-19 situation.
When he addressed the nation in May, President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke about South Africans suffering from “pandemic fatigue”. Combine that with the government’s delayed vaccination programme, then there could only be one result. And yet Gauteng, the province that accounts for a quarter of the population and 40% of the economy, was caught unprepared. It is hard to describe this as anything other than a disgrace.
More than two months after a fire broke out at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, one of the province’s most important facilities remains closed. Even the fire itself can probably be placed at the door of the Gauteng government, as an investigation, once completed, is likely to show neglect as a key factor, if reports of faulty smoke-detection systems, fire alarms and fire hydrants are anything to go by.
As they are inclined to do, politicians will seek to blame the victims of their incompetence instead of looking in the mirror, so the default position is to point the finger at people for going to restaurants. And there will be the usual bogeyman — the alcohol industry — used as justification for more stringent regulation, with some calling for a return to level 5.
The reality is that, as in Europe towards the end of 2020, the third wave has probably gone too far for new restrictions to be effective. Calling for total closure of the economy is also highly irresponsible, and can only be made by those who won’t be experiencing the kind of devastation that workers went through in 2020, from which many are yet to recover.
As we look for a way out of this self-inflicted blow, finding the balance “between saving lives and livelihoods” is something that has to be central in any discussions.
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