Mr President, let’s not see a repeat of Marikana

FINALLY some sanity has prevailed at the Union Buildings as Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc on our beloved land which has suddenly been turned into heaps of open graves waiting to swallow more victims of the unprecedented pandemic.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to ban the trading of booze is laudable but it perhaps came a few weeks too late when the damage had already been done and lives lost.

Before the shift to lockdown alert level 3 on June 1, which saw the lifting of the first ban on alcohol trading, Covid-19 infection cases were on a controllable and expected climb with 32 683 infections, 683 deaths and 1 500 new cases daily.

But chaos ensued when Ramaphosa opened bottle stores on June 1, seemingly due to alcohol industry pressure. Suddenly there was a spike in alcohol-induced car accidents, crime, and general lack of order where house parties came back in full force.

The worst part about post-June 1 was the return of gender-based violence in which several women and children were raped, killed, or both.

Some will argue that the behaviour of a small group of rotten apples should not cast a dark cloud on all drinkers.

Since June 1, we had 276 000 confirmed Covid-19-related cases and over 4 000 deaths and an average of 12 000 new cases daily.

Last week we reached the world’s top 10 countries in terms of most Covid-19 infections. Another regrettable milestone was when we reached the second 100 000 in just two weeks (after June 1).

Booze should have been banned a few weeks ago when the writing on the wall was beginning to look rather ugly with scientists warning us of the possibility of reaching 50 000 Covid19 deaths by the end of the year. All these warning bells seemingly fell on deaf ears until the crisis reached new proportions.

The ball is now back in Ramaphosa’s court as schools have started to reopen warily in the middle of this pandemic.

The calls from parents and teachers’ unions to postpone this year’s schooling programme have also gone unheard despite new infections at schools being reported almost daily.

We can only hope that Covid-19 will not haunt Ramaphosa’s presidency and cause death and an outcry similar to the Marikana Massacre.