BUSINESS UNUSUAL JUST A HOP, JUMP AND SNEEZE AWAY

IN THE 21st century, the year 2020, something unprecedented and dare I say unimaginable has hit the human race on a global scale. Never in our wildest thoughts could we have imagined a state of affairs such as this. Words like “Covid-19” and “pandemic” slide off our tongues as regularly as any, and we are indeed in interesting times.

As a South African living in Germany, I have been experiencing this pandemic both from where I am physically as well as from the point of view of family, friends, acquaintances and the news back home.

South Africans, true to form, met the news of the coronavirus with humour, even as things get worse with more and more cases being reported daily. The media and government are playing their part, but is the news really getting to the ground?

Just like in Italy, France, Germany and many other parts of Europe, Covid-19 in South Africa started out with one confirmed case whose origins could be tracked.

The journey began on March 5, when a group of 10 returned from a cruise of Italy, a country that had, at the time, thousands already infected. In a matter of two weeks, we had 202.

Here in Berlin, schools and gyms were shut down, universities cancelled whole semesters, and we have been in social isolation for the second week now.

Restaurants are closing down daily, with more and more people feeling the effects of this pandemic in their dayto-day lives. With so many businesses unable to stay operational, people are being laid off every day, and fortunately, the government has come to the party and confirmed that it will support its people, enforce rent freezes and assist those who cannot support themselves financially.

“If anything, things will first get worse before they get better

Let us look at this from the South African context and ask, how much suffering are we going to see because of Covid-19?

In a country riddled with economic inequality, poverty, lack of access to basic services such as water and sanitation, how much can the South African government do to reassure South Africans that it can handle this?

How will people wash their hands when so many communities do not have access to clean, running water. How many people will starve because they already live hand to mouth and cannot buy their food in bulk? How will the majority of South Africans practise social distancing when more than 5 million people still live in shacks?

The questions are endless. Has our government done enough to provide real answers to these critical questions? I say not at all.

Let us ask these burning questions and force our leaders to provide us with real solutions. Let us reach out to those who are less fortunate and lend a helping hand. Resist the need to hoard and finish all basic supplies.

Educate yourself, spread compassion as much as you share memes, be loving, be the great nation I know we are, and we can be a nation that cares for all who live in it. If the world has shown us anything, things will get worse, but they will definitely get better in the end.