This has exacerbated the profound economic crisis that South Africa was already facing – the official unemployment rate was 29%, but more realistically was close to 40% prior to the current crisis. More broadly, however, the lockdown has had a devastating economic impact, with many businesses left reeling, formal sector jobs lost and under threat, informal sector and survivalist activities of the unemployed and poor destroyed, and communities suffering from hunger and deep distress. The interval was used to build capacity in the healthcare system and ramp up testing (still a challenge) and community screening initiatives. The six-week lockdown curbed the spread of infections. On March 23, the government declared a national state of disaster and implemented one of the toughest lockdowns in the world – all of this when the number of infections was about 400, and deaths not yet in the 20s. The questions is, will this help him to consolidate his presidential power?Īlso Read: Fake News, Hiding Data and Profits: How COVID-19 Spun Out of Control in Brazil With the coming of the pandemic, Ramaphosa moved decisively to take charge, and the government adopted a science-driven approach, gaining high approval in the media and opposition parties, as well as internationally from the WHO and others. The change was welcomed by many in the middle classes, business and internationally, but Ramaphosa’s position in the ANC remained precarious, with the Zuma network retaining many positions of power. This saw the replacement of the profoundly corrupt, constitution-flouting and incipiently populist regime of Jacob Zuma by the suave former businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, promising to end corruption, restore ‘good governance’ and attract massive foreign investment. Governmental shifts in South Africa seem to have taken the opposite trajectory to much of the global pattern, following changes in the former liberation movement, the African National Congress, at the end of 2017. However, the country today has the fifth highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world – over 420,000 on July 24 – and the virus continues to spread, posing a challenge to the fragile, technocratic and neoliberal government on the one hand and social movements on the other. Popular organisations and the government both moved rapidly in mid-March to respond as the coronavirus pandemic hit South Africa. Only about 1.5% of the country’s 60 million people have received a COVID-19 vaccine dose.This is the third article in a six-part series that is looking at how the COVID-19 pandemic is playing out in the BRICS countries. The surge in cases has drawn more attention to South Africa’s lagging vaccine rollout. The virus was currently following “the same trajectory” as those waves, Ramaphosa said.Įxperts have warned that this wave, arriving with the Southern Hemisphere winter, may be even worse. South Africa has seen two previous surges in infections, the first in the middle of last year and a second, much worse, wave in December and January, when the emergence of a variant pushed infections and deaths to higher levels than the first surge. Authorities stopped short of reimposing limits on people’s movements during the day and a ban on the sales of alcohol and tobacco products, which was in place at times last year. South Africa had been under shutdown Level 1, the most relaxed of its five levels, but is now reverting to an “adjusted Level 2,” Ramaphosa announced. That amounts to more than 30% of the cases and 40% of the deaths recorded by Africa’s 54 countries, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. South Africa has more than 1.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 56,000 deaths from COVID-19. “We have seen in other countries the tragic consequences of leaving the virus to spread unchecked,” Ramaphosa said. Anthony Fauci says the nationwide count has ‘plateaued at a disturbingly high level.’ While California’s COVID-19 case rate has dropped, Dr. California South African and Brazilian coronavirus variants land in L.A.
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