I had to go outside my property after a few days of self-isolation, and I felt uncomfortable. I only had to put out the dirt, but I found myself looking up and down the street, for what I don’t know. I might have been expecting police and soldiers shouting that I should go inside, but I realised that that was unlikely in Rondebosch.
If we had lived in Bokmakierie, Hanover Park or Mitchells Plain, the likelihood of being confronted by police when we stepped outside our property during a national lockdown, would have been more likely.
It is not that the police and army scare me, but that I felt conscious of not doing anything that could potentially undermine the lockdown and put people’s lives at risk. I want to be a good citizen and follow the directive set by the President and which were further outlined in regulations drawn up by different ministries.
I feel that, even if I disagree with some of the regulations, it is not up to me to be defiant but rather to be compliant. Maybe it will help to counter the Covid-19 outbreak in a small way.
Events this week have shown me that some people find it difficult to be compliant: some just cannot comply because of their economic and social situation, while others think that the lockdown regulations do not apply to them.
If anything, the coronavirus which forced us into this lockdown has helped to expose the deep, underlying inequalities in our society once again. We have always known about these inequalities, but we have never been forced to do anything about them. This is as good a time as any to confront them head-on.
We need to find ways of treating the most vulnerable in our society, including the homeless, with the same kind of sensitivity and respect that we afford people in middle-class suburbs.
Among the villains who exposed themselves over the past week was the Minister of Communications, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, who, despite the lockdown restrictions, went for a meal at the home of Mduduzi Manana, a former deputy minister who was convicted two years ago of assaulting two women at a Johannesburg nightclub.
Ndabeni-Abrahams has been put on two months special leave (one unpaid) by the President and has made a less-than-convincing public apology.
She became a victim of the ANC elite’s obsession with flaunting their luxurious lifestyles and political connections on social media. Manana could not resist posting a picture on social media of them having a meal.
He has also recently posted a styled video of his Gucci-inspired lifestyle on social media. The video, and other similar social media postings from senior ANC members, represents an “up yours” to the millions of mainly poor people who has voted for the ANC in successive elections without seeing a marked improvement in their lives. That this kind of behaviour is continuing in the middle of the worst crisis we have faced as a democracy, makes it even worse.
I am one of many who has publicly praised President Cyril Ramaphosa for his handling of the Covid-19 crisis, but I feel that, if he wants the public to support an extension of the lockdown – which seems very likely – then he needs to show that the same rules apply to everyone, including ministers, premiers and mayors. He needs to take firm action against transgressors, irrespective of their political position and standing. [Note: this column was written before the President announced the extension.]
While one can be disappointed by the President’s apparently soft handling of Ndabeni-Abrahams – coming soon after a bridal party was arrested and some people have even been killed by the police for much less – he has not ruled out further action. The police need to pursue legal charges against the minister and the ANC, as the governing party, needs to sanction her and other transgressing members.
The coronavirus has been indiscriminate and has paid little respect to class, race, sexual orientation, gender or age in its infections. It is time that we display the same kind of agnosticism in our attitude towards people who undermine our attempts to contain the virus.
(First published as a Thinking Allowed column in the Weekend Argus on Saturday, 11 April 2020)
