IS COVID-19 THE NEW FACE OF APARTHEID?
December 2019, unassuming South Africa celebrated various victories as a force to be reckoned with. Zozi was Miss Universe, Siya led the nation to victory in the Rugby World Cup and the country was set for what seemed like a great 2020. Meanwhile, China had reported to the World Health Organisation a “pneumonia of unknown causes”. Fast forward a few months, 27 cases of ‘pneumonia on steroids” turned into 18 million and climbing reported cases, causing more than 703k deaths, having been declared a pandemic, COVID-19 was now the captain.
With a round trip ticket and a lust for social interaction, Miss Rona as the virus was humorously renamed, landed in South Africa along with those unsuspecting citizens who had toured Italy just days prior as was reported by the media. As the South African statistics soared, so did the grave concern for the protection of the people. March 15, 2020, the government declared a National State of Disaster according to the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002 (‘the Act’). Section 27 of the Act allows the government to make decisions that were in the best interest of the public, protecting, preventing, and combatting the spread of the virus. Which believe it or not folks, indeed includes washing your hands and skipping on that social gathering at your friends’ place.
The Presidency announced 21 days of lockdown with sheltering in place, the banning of alcohol and tobacco sales, temporarily closing all non-essential services and industries as well as lots of social distancing. 135 days later, those first 21 days are yet to come to a close.
In those 3 weeks (and then some), many citizens longed for a long meaningless stroll on the beach while others longed for sustenance. The Corona Virus has left many unemployed, dependent on state funding as well as other devastating effects on an already poverty-stricken country forcing a way of life most disadvantageous to those, you guessed it, disadvantaged.
This pandemic has also opened the floodgates and let loose the recognition of other global pandemics the world has chosen to ignore. We see the brutality and violence used by the South African Police Service and South African National Defence Force in the enforcing of lockdown regulations - largely overlooked as a “means to an end” but still very reminiscent of the tactics of the apartheid era which in some instances have not quite been forgotten, the toxic dependency on alcohol and its direct correlation to gender-based violence, corruption within the same government democratically elected to eradicate the unjust disregard for human dignity, as well as the systemic discrimination that lingers in the communities previously disadvantaged, all of whom are expected to function as optimally as their previously advantaged counterparts.
https://www.newframe.com/sa-must-abandon-its-us-and-them-lockdown-mentality/
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2020/05/24/south-africa-returning-tostatism/
Policing and lockdown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEsvaVefxNA
On alcohol ban
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXYbm-l8GfQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ9j6jgO5tw