Covid-19 crisis a perfect stress test for our economy
While the coronavirus has wreaked havoc with our economy, plunging us further into an economic decline and worsened poverty, hunger and unemployment, it has also shown us what is possible and how quickly we can adapt.
Within the space of six short (or long) months, our corporate community turned office work into remotework virtually overnight, adapting and adopting new systems to support the seismic shift that has happened. New technologies were employed fast and at scale, keeping many commercial wheels turning.
Why then can we not apply the same innovation, adaptability and sheer resilience to our many challenges, to address long outdated systems and behaviours that no longer serve us as a country?
In SA, now many years after our democracy, widespread inequality is still a reality. There are clear and tangible fault lines that exist between races, genders and classes and the coronavirus has amplified this, making it clear how different the experience has been for the haves and have nots. This despite our aspirations to dismantle apartheid and make our cities more inclusive.
On March 23 2020 President Cyril Ramaphosa called for all South Africans to wash their hands with soap and sanitise. That assumes there is water in the first place; 33% of our population do not have access to basic sanitation, rendering this close to impossible.
The same goes for social distancing; how does a densely populated township implement a 1.5m distance between residents, when it is logistically unviable? Add to this the open sewers and shared ablution facilities and it becomes even harder to control.
Our cities ’ shortcomings have also been exposed; climate change has affected us all; some municipalities have a surplus of water, while others experience prolonged periods of drought. There is collective agreement that our reliance on fossil fuels needs to end, to be replaced by a reliable source of renewable energy as we all deserve access to clean energy.
Our mobility transition too needs to be fast-tracked and we must ask why we are so car-based? Providing access to affordable public transport should be among our key priorities, as many people are locked in townships and cannot get to the cities to find work and create a dignified life.
Along a similar vein, municipalities need to become digitally adapted; why are they not embracing technology to streamline services? That citizens are forced to update their vehicle registrations in person is archaic.
Solutions require our attention, resources and collaboration. At the current rate of urbanisation, the structures will not survive.
While we have a sound urban development framework, we cannot achieve anything unless we have partnerships. The government, which sees itself as the only provider of services, has to work with civil society and the private sector.
This crisis has indeed amplified issues of race and poverty in SA, but it has also shown us what is possible if we act together, and swiftly. We can turn the tide to address the legacies of our past, while simultaneously rebuilding our future by enabling partnerships that address the fundamentals that are holding us back.