16 April 2020
Thursday · Day 21 of lockdown
In an unexpected but welcome show of goodwill, gangs in South Africa called a truce to distribute essential goods to the hungry in some of Cape Town’s poorest areas. The South African Defence Force (SADF) announced that it would commence with a probe into the death of a man in Alexandra in Johannesburg who allegedly died as a result of violence from members of the Force. Facebook announced that, in March alone, it had put warning labels on 40 million posts that contained misleading or false information about the coronavirus. In America, 5.2 million Americans filed for unemployment in one week, bringing the total number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment claims since mid-March 2020 to 22 million. The Indian Premier League was suspended until further notice.
I read a beautiful quote today that read: “We are not all in the same boat; we are all in the same storm.” This made me realise that, while the lockdown has been hard on me and my family, there are people in much worse situations; people with no savings to fall back on. In this time, it is our duty to help these people as best we can, but we also need to look after ourselves because no one can pour water out of an empty cup.
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It’s weird to think that today could have been the last full day of lockdown …
I woke up to a flurry of emails and messages regarding the start of the second term. The reality of online schooling has begun to set in. I mean I always knew school would come around, but I didn’t think too deeply about it. Now I am forced to and it’s overwhelming to say the least. The last time I actually did work on the desk in my childhood bedroom was in matric. For the past year or so, coming home always signified rest and was so separate from my school life. And that’s how I’ve been treating the past few weeks – as a holiday.
I have to make a mental shift and focus (and test my self-discipline). I can see it now: Tuesday (the day when I have classes from 8:00 am to 17:00 pm), the whole day by my desk, in silence. It’s crazy to think that days like that are going to be the norm.
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This morning I saw some very worrying videos of people throwing stones and looting in some parts of Cape Town. I was shocked at first but after doing some reading I realised why they were doing this. It was simple, they had not received the food that they were promised. According to ANC [African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling party] Ward 22 councillor, Bongani Ngcani, emergency food supplies worth around R53 million had been set aside by the Western Cape government, but these supplies had not reached residents yet.
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Tensions rose today as everybody is feeling very frustrated and cooped up. Having a daily routine where you can walk around, talk to different people and see different things really does contribute to a sense of individuality and independence. That is why, I think, being in lockdown (even with people that you love and feel safe with) can lead to such a deep sense of dissatisfaction. Of course I am able to say this from a place of privilege. I cannot imagine what it must be like staying in lockdown when circumstances at home are difficult or when one does not feel cared for or even safe.
I have also been wondering what life post-lockdown is going to look like. When will schools be able to reopen, people be allowed to go back to work or shops and restaurants open? At least I have a bit of certainty when it comes to the rest of my university term (more or less – how we are going to be assessed still remains a mystery). On CNN this morning I saw a report on how countries with women as leaders seem to be better controlling the spread of the coronavirus. I wonder what the explanation for that might be …
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Today’s big news is that the lockdown is to be extended indefinitely, although the government will slowly start easing certain restrictions. One of the biggest discussions in my home is how schools will operate. I know universities have measures in place to continue the academic year, but it seems that the continued functioning of schools is still in question. My younger sister, who is now in grade 11, has continued with online learning, but they’re not sure if it’s going to be sustainable. My mom and my sister have spoken about home schooling my sister for the rest of this year because they don’t want my sister to lose out on her academic year. There is just the issue of whether the school will support this by providing learning aids for the subjects my mom doesn’t know much about. My sister also mentioned something today about there being some talk of schools promoting all schoolgoers to the following grade next year, and then having a revision term for this year’s work. As expected, there is just so much uncertainty.
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I made my sister a birthday breakfast. Honestly it was more brunch than breakfast since she doesn’t wake up any time before 11:00 am. Other than that, it was a normal lockdown day. I tried to get as much work done as I could. We had a lovely dinner as a family. My origami birds definitely elevated the room, if I say so myself. Afterwards my sister (birthday girl) and I made a cheese platter and pretended our Grapetiser was wine so that we could have a movie marathon.
In terms of real world things, we’re still waiting for the president’s verdict on lifting the ban on sale of alcohol. The number of confirmed cases is continuing to rise, but I think it’s because they’ve actually now gone out and done the mobile testing which allows them to test on a larger scale. I think the numbers will increase even more rapidly as more mobile tests are done. Today, the number of positive cases stood at 2 605. However, 903 people have fully recovered or have been confirmed negative.
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Today would have been the day that the nationwide lockdown ended, but now they are still weeks remaining. A person can only stay in their house for so long until they are driven to insanity. The global economy is experiencing a financial crisis; GDP is falling, unemployment is rising, stock markets are collapsing and overall the economic future looks quite bleak. Governments all over the world are trying to help their citizens by providing unemployment packages to those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. In South Africa, the government is also distributing food parcels to impoverished areas, or so they say. How much is the government actually doing for those who are suffering and whether the money which is being allocated to such programmes is actually being used for this purpose, is not clear. It would not surprise me if corruption was taking place and the money was being used to enrich a member of parliament instead.
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Day 21 of the national lockdown. South Africa is currently standing at 2 605 cases with a death count of 48. In my first diary entry, I mentioned that the virus was dominating most conversations. This is still very much true but the nature of conversation has changed slightly. Back in the early days, words like “self-isolation”, “self-quarantine”, and phrases like “flatten the curve” were frequent, but as time has gone on and we have become more desensitised, our conversations have become less formal. We now joke about the “before times” and the “outside world”. Now, we don’t talk so much about the virus itself, but about the problems surrounding it (e.g. loss of income, the prohibition of certain goods, the economic lockdown, etc.). This change in focus is related, I think, to our acceptance of the problem. In March we were still grasping the idea of the virus itself, whereas now that we have accepted the situation we have begun to consider minor details.
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Today I was woken up a little differently to how I am most days. I got woken up by my girlfriend bringing me coffee in bed! We had not seen each other in weeks, but she lives two minutes away from me in the same estate. After consulting with my mother, she told me that our parents decided it was okay for her to visit me because both families have been on full lockdown for almost four weeks now. This surprise was more than pleasant; it filled me with happiness and comfort knowing that I could spend my time with someone that I love! We started the day off catching up and enjoying each other’s company. After this we decided to bake banana bread just as your typical lockdown couple would do. The entire day was a day filled with happiness and love. After all the fun, we both decided to work for about an hour before we watched a movie to top off probably the best day of lockdown so far!
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Lockdown was supposed to end today (before President Ramaphosa announced the two-week extension period). This week I have felt quite overwhelmed and decided to take a break from analysing the changing world around me. Breaks are very much needed. A system overload only impedes productivity – this is true for businesses, the global economy and individual human beings. And this is also partially the reason for the nationwide lockdown: to buy our already struggling healthcare system a bit more time to get geared with staff and PPE.