9 April 2020

Thursday · Day 14 of lockdown

On day 14 of lockdown in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa once again addressed the nation and announced a two-week extension to the initial lockdown of three weeks. With 440 infections, the city of Johannesburg continued to be the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in Gauteng. In Cape Town, criminal lawyer William Booth survived what appeared to be an assassination attempt on his life. The first of thousands of British tourists stuck in South Africa began their journey home. In an attempt to stop the virus from spreading, Cuba suspended all forms of public transport, including taxis and buses. The city of Honolulu in Hawaii introduced a curfew just before the Easter weekend. The curfew prohibited most people from driving ‘anything with a wheel’ between 23:00 pm and 5:00 am each day.

Today, as we ended the second week of lockdown, our family fasted again. During our time fasting we prayed for the country, our leaders and all those that are still working to accommodate and protect us. We also had a little family meeting. My parents have been doing Bible study together and discussing the different roles in a family, and they wanted me and my sister to give our input. It was actually the first time I got to speak openly and honestly about my thoughts on how they have parented us. I think this lockdown has really created more time for us to have these conversations. We’ve also been spending a lot more time together.

President Ramaphosa addressed the nation at 8:00 pm. He announced that the lockdown will be extended by an additional two weeks. I am not surprised, as the number of Covid-19 cases has continued to increase despite the lockdown. The growth rate has slowed substantially though, from 42% in March to 4% currently. As much as I’m disappointed about not being able to see friends and family, I’d much rather see them in healthy condition after all this is done.

* * *

I woke up extra happy and excited this morning. There would have been exactly seven days left of lockdown and I had so much planned for when things got back to normal.

The first thing I wanted to do was return to Stellenbosch, because although I have been enjoying spending time with my family, I could really do with some quiet and fewer domestic interferences once online learning starts.

Deep down, though, I knew none of the things I wanted to do was going to be possible. In his national address this evening, the president announced a two-week extension of the nationwide lockdown. I assumed that there would be an extension, but I must admit that I was disappointed that my assumption had become a reality.

Although we are all disappointed, I believe it was a smart decision made by our government. At the end of the day, we all know that the government is fulfilling their duty to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all South Africans.

* * *

I took a walk to the shops today (about 1km from the house). If I’d known it would be that easy to move around with no questions asked, I’d have started grocery shopping every day for one item at a time weeks ago! I was nervous that I’d be stopped by police or the neighbourhood security, but they didn’t give me a second glance. The atmosphere at the shopping centre was something out of a Stephen King novel, but it was the most eventful experience I’ve had in weeks. I was disappointed, however, to find the Beacon chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs SOLD OUT the day before Easter. Under normal circumstances, those things last until June!

A student reached out to the leaders of the Stellenbosch University [SU] Anti Gender-Based Violence movement seeking refuge from domestic abuse. We sought help from university structures and tried to direct her to different institutions and shelters, but we weren’t very helpful.

The extension of the lockdown was certainly expected, although nothing short of disappointing. It dawned on me that, eager to get back to my life, I’ve been naively optimistic about the situation.

* * *

My question today is: is the coronavirus a biblical plague that will be the end of civilisation? The virus has now infected over 1.6 million people worldwide and killed over 95 000. Every time I check the new statistics, I am astonished. China was brought to its knees back in January when the pandemic hit the city of Wuhan and it has since then managed to expand to all four corners of the globe. This rapid spread, and the fact that there is no cure being discovered, has led me to wonder if it has a supernatural origin.

A verse from the book of Chronicles [in the Bible] reads: “[W]henever I hold back the rain or send locusts to eat up the crops or send an epidemic on my people, if they pray to me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again.”

I am a Roman Catholic Christian, and I was raised in church, so this definitely attracted my attention. I went online and saw many people were saying that God has held back rain in Australia, Africa is being swarmed with locusts and that the coronavirus is an epidemic. Many are saying that, according to the Bible, this signals the end.

* * *

Lo and behold – we learned tonight that isolation is being extended by another two weeks. I have mixed feelings about this. I was right about the extension and so I am kind of proud of my foresight. I also know that this is going to be dreadfully boring, economically draining and all the rest. However, I now have more time to learn things about myself that perhaps I did not know, which adds an element of excitement, if you want to call it that and be ironic.

Part of me is also starting to think that I should have gone home, back to Zim [Zimbabwe] for this lockdown. My parents are struggling to send me money for food and electricity because of their inability to trade Forex at the moment.

With this global lockdown, there must be many people stuck in foreign countries. I am one, though it is not affecting me too much as I have faith in my parents’ ability to get me money one way or another. But, I heard a story today about a South African family that was on holiday in Morocco and ended up not being able to leave, and are now homeless as they have run out of money.

* * *

My family and I had a celebratory dinner tonight to celebrate us surviving two week of lockdown. The theme was ‘Proudly South African’, and we all had to come dressed in our national colours. The evening was very festive until it was announced that lockdown will be extended. We were all disappointed, although we understand that it is necessary.

* * *

This morning, my mom woke me up and said that she was making a brunch for the family, and we all had to be done at 11:00 am. This was a nice surprise (also, a once-a-year type of surprise). We had banana-based flapjacks, hot-cross buns and scrambled egg. After this, I quickly did my chores, and then ended up playing table tennis for about two hours.

The main event of the day was watching the president’s speech. When Ramaphosa announced that he and his cabinet will be taking a pay cut and donating a third of their salaries for the next three months to the Solidarity Fund, I was very impressed. I believe that this was a perfect example of servant leadership. I also loved how he extended the challenge to other large company executives and public office bearers. […] Honestly, I can’t imagine what it must be like to be president during this period.

* * *

Tonight, President Ramaphosa announced that the lockdown will be extended by two weeks, making the lockdown period a total of five weeks (for now). Just before he made this announcement, I spoke to one of my personal mentors – she is doing her Master’s in Chemistry at the University of Pretoria. Her opinion is [that] lockdown has to be extended, since we haven’t even reached the peak of the virus in South Africa yet. But many others, especially those more focusing on the economic effects, would disagree.

In reality though, we cannot argue with the president’s decision. The counterfactual would be much worse, in terms of loss of human life, system overload and infrastructural pressure, to name just a few things off the top of my head.

* * *

In today’s entry, I want to address some of the main concerns regarding the implementation and subsequent extension of the nationwide lockdown. Many industry experts have expressed their disfavour towards the approach adopted by the South African government. While on the surface, the practice of basing one’s strategy on results obtained by other countries sounds reasonable, it fails to address the fact that the African continent faces a unique set of challenges. More studies are suggesting that by applying a “cookie-cutter” approach, countries – particularly poorer ones with vastly different demographics to those found in the western world – run the risk of an outcome even more detrimental than anything the virus is likely to conjure up. Africa has extremely high levels of poverty, which greatly reduces the effectiveness of a lockdown. These same experts argue that the economic fallout due to a lockdown will result in many deaths due to starvation and malnutrition, the victims of which are likely to be children (the same cannot be said of the coronavirus).

* * *

It was my cousin’s 21st birthday today. Like most people he had no choice but to stay at home and spend his birthday like a normal day. I know it’s not the biggest problem right now, but it is something which he had really been looking forward to.