Saving lives vs livelihoods – all eyes on Ramaphosa as battle to strike balance continues

As the clock ticks towards President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Sunday night on how the country is to deal with the rapid rise in coronavirus infections, especially in Gauteng, the debate around saving lives and livelihoods continues to rage.

Gauteng is the economic hub of the South African economy and getting the balance right in terms of ensuring the economy keeps running, while curbing the spread of the disease remains a near impossible task.

The rapid rise in coronavirus cases has set the scene for inevitable adjustments in government’s lockdown level restrictions. South Africa is currently on level 3 of the lockdown, which tends to put more restrictions on numbers at gatherings and some restriction on alcohol retail. But the fear is that the country may be headed to lockdown level 4, especially in Gauteng, which is currently bearing the brunt of the highest incidence of infections.

Health experts urge South Africans to refrain from social gatherings:

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Looking back at level 4, which came into effect on the 1st of May of last year, restrictions included,
the complete ban on alcohol sales as well as cigarettes; a curfew of 8pm to 5am, with the exception of essential workers; limits on inter-provincial travel; heavy border crossing restrictions, with mainly trade still permitted to go on. There was also a rule that tenants could not be evicted, and
there were limitations on when and where people could exercise, among other measures.

On whether the province or any other place in the country really afford to endure these sorts of restrictions again, Executive Director of Inkunzi Wealth, Owen Nkomo, says: “We are stuck between a rock and a hard place as a country obviously…also the economy is lying on the floor.”

The alcohol sector has been the subject of three bans since the start of lockdown restrictions last year. It’s reached out to the government for a more pragmatic approach to the sector, with a view to saving jobs.

“We feel we can look at at the issue of off site consumption as well as on consumption…seek to encourage people to consume alcohol in the comfort of their own homes where trading can resume from Monday to Thursday from 10am to 6pm. But also on-site consumption can be given a special dispensation where they’re able to sell only as off premise, so that allows people to only partake liquor in the comfort of their own homes, so I think maybe we need to look at being careful at how we deal with restaurants, where we feel that an issue of having a limited number of people visiting restaurants can be introduced so that we’re able to further promote that sector and not really destroy it as we’re all battling the pandemic, more especially in the Gauteng province,” says SA Liquor Traders Association Spokesperson, Lucky Ntimane.

The restaurant industry, which has been on the backfoot for most of the lockdown period, says if there’s another alcohol ban, South Africans can kiss many more restaurants goodbye.

“We have run surveys on our industry to show that the transmission within the restaurant sector is very low and we cannot afford another alcohol ban as it will destroy the industry; destroy people’s lives and destroy businesses as well as lose thousands of jobs. It’s not only about the direct jobs that will be impacted, but the entire future that will be decimated as a result of this,” says Restaurant Association of South Africa CEO, Wendy Alberts.

President Ramaphosa expected to announce stricter lockdown restrictions:

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Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)