Solutions to ensuring protection

First position paper reviews, questions country’s preparedness for the Covid-19 pandemic

FORMER UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Judge Navi Pillay was part of a heavyweight group of South African academics who have contributed to what could be a first position paper which reviews and questions the government’s readiness for the Covid19 pandemic.

It also provides steps that should be taken to prepare for similar scenarios in future but the protection of human rights of citizens, unsurprisingly given the contribution of Durban rights activist Pillay, the paper highlights the painful conundrum the government finds itself attempting to save lives while at the same time law enforcement agencies meant to protect those rights were seemingly trampling on them.

“Covid-19 has tested the integrity, strength and preparedness of societies, governments, communities and individuals to deal with a pandemic, as a global community,” said Anshu Padayachee, chief executive of the South African Technology Network.

Padayachee said the sweeping powers exercised by President Cyril Ramaphosa and his executive team via the provisions of the Disaster Management Act has tested South Africa’s constitutional democracy.

“When such emergency powers are invoked, there is a clear risk of violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms and disrespect for the rule of law,” she said in the paper released exclusively to Independent Media on Wednesday.

Along with the revered human rights Judge Pillay, the project, initiated and driven by SATN head Padayachee, with Sershen Naidoo, executive director of the Institute of Natural Resources, and University of Kwazulu-natal scientist Urmilla Bob, aimed to provide a critique of government’s handling of the pandemic as well as a roadmap for the future.

Academics and scientists who contributed to the project comprised professors from Wits University’s William Gumede and Ames Dhai, UKZN’S Ntokozo Nzimande, Central University of Technology’s, Deon de Beer, Ryk Lues and Lucia Anelich, and University of Pretoria’s Tinyiko Maluleke.

Vasu Gounden, executive director of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (Accord) and coaching facilitator Ahmed Wadee also contributed to the paper which aimed at providing lessons to guide the government in the event of future pandemics.

Titled Priority Setting for Interventions in Pre-post Pandemic Management: The Case of Covid 19, the paper called on the government to urgently start planning for a post-pandemic world, ensuring that the tertiary sector was involved in the nation’s economic recovery through the promotion of entrepreneurship for students.

For this to happen successfully, it suggested that the departments of labour, small business development, and trade and industry support start-up businesses in partnership with education institutions.

“This will be crucial post this pandemic as large numbers of graduates will be seeking jobs in a poor job market,” said the paper.

The paper noted the serious nature of the rapidly moving Coronavirus which “showed that a sneeze in Durban could become a fever in Dublin with one flight, and within one day”, hence, the need for a co-ordinated approach that was more inclusive to fight against the pandemic.

The paper’s main focus revolved around finding solutions to protect South Africans from the aftermath of this pandemic while ensuring that the government prioritised handling of ethical and human rights implications that may contribute to reducing the death and disease burden and minimise political destabilisation and claims of injustice witnessed during the Covid-19 outbreak response.

The paper was clear that while the Command Council and its scientific collection of 51 advisers were dealing with the “here and now”, a strategic think tank must be installed to prepare a priority plan for the “new normal” in the short-term and the future.

“It is hoped that out of this dark pandemic will emerge some positive outcomes, namely, reviewing policy, regulations, infrastructure and development in general. The challenge post-covid-19 will be to find new ways to fast-track the building of the economy and the nation,” it added.

Furthermore, the paper stated that the regulations in the Disaster Management Act and Guideline: Development and Structure of a Disaster Management Plan fail to sufficiently consider the possibility of a virus pandemic although the Act states that each province and municipal area should have disaster management plans that “anticipate the types of disaster that are likely to occur in the province and their possible effects”.

Establishing and formalising partnerships and business enterprises with, for example, technology-focused universities that have the facilities, capacity, and technical know-how for rapid prototyping was a key proposal.

Another was ensuring that facilities at universities and private sector companies focused on additive and advanced manufacturing, electronics/ mechatronics, while Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies must be mobilised to design, develop and manufacture medical devices and products during pandemics.

It also praised the response to Covid-19 as arguably the most effective public-private partnership South Africa has seen since the demise of apartheid.

“Partnerships between the public, private sector and civil society in crisis strategy execution are even more crucial when the state lacks sufficient capacity, resources, and ideas.”

But the government was urged to broaden its partnership approach beyond the National Economic Development and Labour Council, which has only two trade union federations and outdated civil society representatives, the paper said.

Concluding was a chilling reminder to the government on its stringent policing which has resulted in more than 230 000 arrests since the country went into lockdown on March 26, and worse, the deaths of at least a dozen people in violent incidents throughout the country involving the army.

The Covid-19 pandemic-induced crisis has prompted panic buying, looting, riots, protests and violence with Accord, warning that the spread of the virus, together with measures to contain it, will increase the risk of social unrest and violent conflict.

“When South Africa’s success in managing the current and future pandemics is eventually measured, the government’s respect for its people may serve as an even more important indicator than its infrastructural, policy and economic responses,” it said.