BRUCE WHITFIELD: Eight lessons Covid-19 taught SA
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It’s hardly surprising that after nearly 150 days of lockdown, give or take half a year, our analysis of the government’s response to the pandemic is highly critical. The state hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory.
Much of its communication has been poor, enforcement petty and application patchy. How the economy recovers will make or break this government. Possibly even the ANC itself.
It would be foolish to let this crisis go to waste. In my book, The Upside of Down, published the week SA went into lockdown, I wrote: “Bizarrely, a crisis might just be what SA needs to force the hand of policy-makers to become more decisive. Crises that may accelerate a recovery following a collapse, however, hurt the most vulnerable in society in the short term and should be avoided.”
When I wrote that, my thoughts were centred on the slow-burn implosion of the economy. I was thinking about SA’s inability to confront politically unpalatable choices it needed to make to boost confidence, and provide the private sector with appropriate incentives to do what it does best — create economic prosperity via growth and job creation.
At the time, the pandemic was starting to emerge in China. There was no way of knowing at that point what a catastrophic effect Covid-19 would have on the local and global economy.
Covid-19 has exposed SA’s fault-lines more clearly than ever before, and it is up to policymakers to seize the opportunity to drive through a reform agenda that, before this crisis, might have seemed impossible.
In the early stages of this crisis, a couple of good things did happen: spectrum was freed up, albeit temporarily, to ensure the digital economy could keep moving; and government showed a willingness to listen to private sector advice.
But as the crisis dragged on, this waned. It now needs to be reignited.
Lesson 1: Government matters:
For those fortunate enough to afford medical aid, private security, estate living, insurance to protect against loss of income, and sufficient capital to have an offshore back-stop, the quality of government didn’t really affect them directly before the pandemic.
The inconvenience of a visit to the Department of Home Affairs is now largely offset with a branch visit to a bank in a big city, while car licence disks can be renewed online.
If you can afford to pay a premium, you can minimise your need to ...
Much of its communication has been poor, enforcement petty and application patchy. How the economy recovers will make or break this government. Possibly even the ANC itself.
It would be foolish to let this crisis go to waste. In my book, The Upside of Down, published the week SA went into lockdown, I wrote: “Bizarrely, a crisis might just be what SA needs to force the hand of policy-makers to become more decisive. Crises that may accelerate a recovery following a collapse, however, hurt the most vulnerable in society in the short term and should be avoided.”
When I wrote that, my thoughts were centred on the slow-burn implosion of the economy. I was thinking about SA’s inability to confront politically unpalatable choices it needed to make to boost confidence, and provide the private sector with appropriate incentives to do what it does best — create economic prosperity via growth and job creation.
At the time, the pandemic was starting to emerge in China. There was no way of knowing at that point what a catastrophic effect Covid-19 would have on the local and global economy.
Covid-19 has exposed SA’s fault-lines more clearly than ever before, and it is up to policymakers to seize the opportunity to drive through a reform agenda that, before this crisis, might have seemed impossible.
In the early stages of this crisis, a couple of good things did happen: spectrum was freed up, albeit temporarily, to ensure the digital economy could keep moving; and government showed a willingness to listen to private sector advice.
But as the crisis dragged on, this waned. It now needs to be reignited.
Lesson 1: Government matters:
For those fortunate enough to afford medical aid, private security, estate living, insurance to protect against loss of income, and sufficient capital to have an offshore back-stop, the quality of government didn’t really affect them directly before the pandemic.
The inconvenience of a visit to the Department of Home Affairs is now largely offset with a branch visit to a bank in a big city, while car licence disks can be renewed online.
If you can afford to pay a premium, you can minimise your need to ...
