As President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation tonight, April 9, many had hoped he brought with him good news.
“During the course of these last two weeks, your lives have been severely disrupted, you have suffered great hardship and endured much uncertainty. We have closed our borders to the world, our children are not in school, businesses have closed their operations, many have lost their income, and our economy has ground to a halt. And yet, faced with such daunting challenges, you, the people of South Africa, have responded with remarkable patience and courage,” Ramaphosa began.
Since the lockdown came into effect, Ramaphosa explained the rate at which new cases have been identified here in South Africa has slowed significantly.
Yet, he said the struggle was far from over.
“We are only at the beginning of a monumental struggle that demands our every resource and our every effort,” he said.
As South Africa ends its first two weeks of the nationwide lockdown, Ramaphosa emphasised that learning both from the experiences of other countries and from the evidence we now have about the development of the pandemic in South Africa, it is of the utmost importance in a manner that is both cautious and calibrated.
“Simply put, if we end the lockdown too soon or too abruptly, we risk a massive and uncontrollable resurgence of the disease. We risk reversing the gains we have made over the last few weeks, and rendering meaningless the great sacrifices we have all made.”
With this in mind and after careful consideration of the available evidence, the National Coronavirus Command Council has decided to extend the nation-wide lockdown by a further two weeks beyond the initial 21 days.
This means that most of the existing lockdown measures will remain in force until the end of April.
“We will use the coming days to evaluate how we will embark on risk-adjusted measures that can enable a phased recovery of the economy, allowing the return to operation of certain sectors under strictly controlled conditions. We will also use this time to ramp up our public health interventions. We did not take this decision to extend the lockdown lightly.”
Stating that he was keenly aware of the impact this will have on our economy, Ramaphosa emphasised that unless we take these difficult measures now, unless we hold to this course for a little longer, the coronavirus pandemic will engulf, and ultimately consume, our country.
“We all want the economy to come back to life, we want people to return to work, we want our children to go back to school, and we all want to be able to move freely again. But our immediate priority must remain to slow down the spread of the virus and to prevent a massive loss of life.”
Currently, the government has a strategy which is made up of three parts:
- Firstly, an intensified public health response to slow down and reduce infections.
- Secondly, a comprehensive package of economic support measures to assist businesses and individuals affected by the pandemic.
- Thirdly, a programme of increased social support to protect poor and vulnerable households.
“As government, together with our many partners, we have used this lockdown period to both refine and intensify our public health strategy to manage the coronavirus. Our approach is to screen in communities and test people in hospitals, clinics and mobile clinics, to isolate those who are infected, and to care for those who are ill in our health facilities.”
With the government implementing a series of plans to help South Africans, what are your thoughts on the lockdown being extended? How will it affect your lives? Share your thoughts and views with us in the comment section below.
