Attentive observers already had a feeling that the measures governing South Africa at the moment are not only Covid-19 related but now a speech of President Ramaphosa confirmed in not uncertain terms that the crisis is a perfect smokescreen to change the economics and with it the social fabric of South Africa in one go.
In remarks in Kwazulu Natal on Tuesday, the 5th of May he spoke about the reconstruction of South Africa’s economy and said:
“Covid-19 is quite frankly giving us an opportunity to relook at our economic side of life to see how we as South Africans reconstruct our economy after coronavirus, knowing that coronavirus has dealt us a huge blow. … This is a post-war situation. We have been fighting an invisible enemy and now we must start planning for a post-war situation which gives rise to a number of challenges and opportunities. … Radical economic transformation must underpin the economic future that we will need to craft going forward. We should be able to do this through a new compact we are going to build”
Listening to him provides then the background to understand the measures taken not only to combat the pandemic and concentrate on cushioning the impact on poverty and economy but more than less intentionally manoeuvre the state into a new compact while the country struggles with massive financial woes and still waiting to recover money wasted by corruption and ideology since decades.
While millions of people in this country struggle to secure enough food, while staff in hospitals feel let down and anxious, while repatriations of South Africans end up in fiasco and rules and regulations change by the day with no end in sight – instead of fixing what is first important it seems that the ruling party sees the Covid-19 pandemic as a perfect opportunity to radically change the game while people are in lockdown and challenged by often questionable rules made by those roaming freely because of their VIP status.
Nobody in this country is against transformation and a better future for all – but with the track record of government in running SOE’s and the fiscal challenges piling up every day more – abusing a health crisis to achieve this transformation will bring more misery to those anyhow left out since years. Instead of using the time for a narrative of “we are all South Africans – and we together will come out stronger” the impression is that rather racial undertones and racial scoring has the upper hand, deepening the trauma of this society.
Adding the clear signs, that the past has not left office for the members of the South African National Defence Forces and the South African Police Service – having been implicated in several cases of brutality and torture – the question of transformation as a healing process and not a radical process is even more urgent. This country will not be able to have a future if ideology, racism, tribalism and lingering in the past governs supreme.
Covid-19 is now more than a health challenge – it is a challenge whether the new democratic South Africa and society as such allows those in power to use the situation for their own ideological gain or if the last 25 years brought enough appreciation for democratic rules as a guarantee for a future for all South Africans and with it for Africa as a continent.
At this moment in time, the prospects look very muddy – but not all is lost. Maybe the courts will come to the rescue again looking at the non-democratic command structures formed and increasingly questioned by constitutional lawyers.
Filed under: General, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, South Africa, Uncategorized, Covid-19, politics, radical transformation, RET, SANDF, SAPS, south africa
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