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South Africa goes into coronavirus lockdown mode as the nation unites against a common enemy, despite economic uncertainty
By Tshawe Lama Tshawe | VOL.12 May ·2020-05-07
A shopper fills two trolleys on the eve of the lockdown in South Africa (Tshawe Lama Tshawe)

The busy Central Avenue in the sprawling South African town of Kempton Park outside Johannesburg has for years been a strategic business location for 63-year-old pensioner and street trader Dora Makopane.

With a thriving informal sector made up of street traders and small family-owned shops, accounting for about 2.5 million employment opportunities, South Africa's small, medium and micro-enterprises have been among the hardest hit by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Solely dependent on income from the public sale of their wares, products and services - from car washing to food trolley assistance for delivery of vegetables, clothes and food - traders like Makopane had to stop operating in response to President Cyril Ramaphosa's five-week long lockdown aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19.

As in any other parts of the world, COVID-19 in South Africa came at great cost to the country's economy along with, more importantly, loss of life and the impact on people infected.

The hospitality, sports, entertainment, travel, catering, liquor and fast food industries - among key pillars in the economy - had to come to a standstill, due to lockdown regulations.

Plunge into uncertainty

For the first time, the country, with over 2,173 COVID-19 positive cases and at least 25 deaths (as of April 12), this year experienced a quiet Easter holiday break, with most churches, stadiums, theaters, schools, universities, hotels and airports deserted.

A familiar sight now is of security force patrols on foot and in armored vehicles enforcing the lockdown along with police and long queues outside banks and supermarkets. Most people have heeded the call to stay at home as citizens are thrown into a world of uncertainty.

On the eve of Ramaphosa's lockdown announcement, Makopane had every reason to be troubled.

Sitting behind a makeshift stand next to her wares - clothes and some stacked herbal medicines - Makopane appeared distraught.

"From tomorrow, I will no longer be selling here because of the lockdown," she said. "While I understand President Ramaphosa's rationale to take care of our health situation in the country, as small traders who are unregistered, we are going to suffer with our families."

At Kempton Square Mall meters away from Makopane, Kenyan foreign national Jane Kabiru, who two years ago sought political asylum in South Africa, had a similar story to tell.

With two children to look after and paying a hefty rent at the mall to occupy an outdoor space to sell bags, cloths and pillows, Kabiru said she had mixed feelings about Ramaphosa's measures.

"Now, I cannot put food on the table or pay residential rent. I understand the need for a lockdown. With the outbreak of the coronavirus making waves, business has been bad, because people are flooding shops to buy food. In the business that I am in, it only gets busy occasionally," she said, adding that now she had to close her stall.

Lockdown is working

While conceding that during the last two weeks of the initial 21-day lockdown, people's lives have been severely disrupted, Ramaphosa used the eve of Easter weekend to announce a 14-day extension, saying the countrywide shutdown showed positive signs.

Analysis by scientists, said Ramaphosa, revealed that the daily increase in confirmed infections had slowed to a daily average of 4 percent during the lockdown from a daily increase of 42 percent in the two weeks before lockdown.

"There is sufficient evidence that the lockdown is working," Ramaphosa told the nation in a live televised message.

He added, "Much is being asked of you. This is a matter of survival. We must do all in our power to prevent the massive loss of life.

"I ask you to endure even longer by making greater sacrifices," he said. "Unless we take measures now, the coronavirus pandemic will engulf and consume our country."

Having conducted over 83,000 COVID-19 tests as of April 13, Ramaphosa said testing would be ramped up. Part of the public health intervention is to help understand the real extent of South Africa's infection rate.

There is public fear that numbers of those infected could soar because of the fast-approaching winter season in the country, associated with flu outbreaks.

But a medical expert is hopeful about a drop in numbers of those infected, should all South Africans obey Ramaphosa's lockdown order.

Citing South Korea, Singapore and China among countries where the lockdown in response to the coronavirus has yielded positive results, Kerrin Begg, an academic of the Department of Global Health at the University of Stellenbosch, said, "In two weeks, we are expected to see the slowing down in the rate of increase of the virus. President Ramaphosa has shown leadership by declaring the national state of disaster."

Begg said people developed coronavirus symptoms only in 14 days.

A travel ban, said Begg, was "vital in slowing down the rate of transmission," adding that 70 percent of the COVID-19 cases in South Africa are imported.

"These are from people who came through our ports of entries from overseas countries, a sizable number compared to locally transmitted cases," explained Begg.

She said restrictions of contact with other people within South Africa flattened the virus curve, making it possible for health workers at medical facilities "to buy time and be able to cope with minimum patients."

Africa needs medical resources

Given the few numbers of health workers and inadequate infrastructure in most African countries, it is feared that any new wave of the virus on the continent could have a devastating effect.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, Africa, which is home to more than 1.3 billion people and bearing one-third of the global disease burden, accounts for only 3 percent of the global health workforce. The average physician density in sub-Saharan Africa stands at two doctors per 10,000 people, ranging from 0.6 in Burkina Faso to nine doctors in South Africa. Nigeria, which is the most populous nation in Africa, has physician density of three doctors to 10,000 people.

Ethiopia has just one doctor per 10,000 people, even though it has the second largest population on the continent. In contrast, Italy, France and Spain, where COVID-19 is taking its heaviest toll, have physician densities of 40.9, 40.6 and 32.3 doctors per 10,000 people respectively. In addition, a total hospital density per 100,000 population across the continent ranges from 0.06 to 0.17. The number of hospital beds, including intensive care unit beds, are also limited.

Amid fears that coronavirus-positive cases in Africa are set to rapidly increase in the months ahead, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has estimated that COVID-19 could cost the continent a gross domestic product loss of between $22.1 billion and $88.3 billion.

According to AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, the virus was set to further squeeze the continent's fiscus, as deficits were estimated to widen by 3.5 to 4.9 percentage points, increasing Africa's financing gap by an additional $110 to $154 billion this year.

As the future looks bleak for Africa, what has become clear is that the continent will find it hard to survive the COVID-19 impact without international solidarity and material and financial assistance from the international community. CA

(Print Edition Title: Locked and Loaded)

(Reporting from South Africa)

Comments to zanjifang@chinafrica.cn

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