A new reconstruction and development programme must guide us post-Covid

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement this week of an additional two weeks of lockdown piles pain on misery for South Africans. Who hadn’t hoped that our lockdown would come and go, and that we would be able to get back to our normal lives involving families, jobs, entertainment and sport, both watched and played? But there’ll be none of that, not for a while. No “friends shaking hands, saying how do you do” in what remains a wonderful world, but one that has been put on hold — for now. And for how long? In the season of hope that is Easter, there is, regretfully, not much to sustain that hope. We can fall back on faith in a greater power, and perhaps draw comfort from the fact that humanity has overcome greater crises — but at what cost? In SA, we may take inspiration from our country’s dark hours in the apartheid era, and draw from that lessons of unity of purpose and belief in a better future. But nothing could have prepared us for the calamity that has now struck us, and which could get a lot worse before we once again glimpse that light at the end of the tunnel we’re assured is there. One consolation is in knowing the world is in this together. But our burdens are not equal.

Much of the news coverage gripping the world has focused on the Covid-19 crisis in the developed world, especially Europe and the US, where it has cut a swath through the aged and vulnerable. It has also exposed the limitations of top-quality health care, underlining that health-care systems are only as good as the care they offer to the poorest of the poor. The coronavirus knows no boundaries, afflicting rich and poor.

In the case of Covid-19, the rich and those exposed to people who make international trips were among the first to be afflicted. In SA this was also the case, with the country’s first 60,000-odd tests conducted mostly in the private health system, on people with medical aid.

It is the next stage of the disease’s progression that holds the greatest dread for South Africans. In conditions of poverty, overcrowding and unsanitary living environments, the virus could spread like wildfire, rapidly overburdening our health-care system, and drowning out the efforts of frontline health workers.

We are assured that testing is being done but the numbers remain stubbornly low, giving SA a skewed picture that tells of only 2,000-odd people having the infection. That is unlikely, but until we can move to mass testing, we will not know when it is safe to relax the lockdown.

In the US, President Donald Trump is eager to reopen his country, while his health professionals — sometimes standing next to him at his daily briefings — deftly try to instil some realism into the debate. There can be no return to normal until mass testing becomes the norm, or until a vaccine is developed. And that holds for SA as well.

But we are not the US, with limitless resources to throw at the problem. Our economy was already in dire straits before this began, relegated to junk status as low growth, corruption and a voracious state consumed our energy and resources. That is why it is vital that we put every effort into saving what economy we still have. Plans to help workers and businesses are welcome, and every cent spent there will be worthwhile.

But there can be no return to the old normal for our economy. The big shift will have to start with the state, which still has considerable resources at its disposal. Post-1994 we adopted a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), which largely failed to get off the ground because the government and its ministers felt better (and certainly more comfortable) with a state largely unchanged from that of the apartheid era.

A new RDP will be needed. And this time there must be no excuses and feet-dragging. All of the state’s efforts must fall in line with a comprehensive strategy to turn around and salvage the economy. It will require a Codesa-style approach that brings in the skills of business, the government and labour, all focused on the bigger picture.

Perhaps some good can come from this catastrophe. What other choice is there?

There can be no return to the old normal for our economy