President Cyril Ramaphosa rightly stated in his letter of 11 May: “Imposing a nation-wide lockdown gave our country a strategic advantage. It bought us valuable time to prepare our health system and put in place containment measures. This has slowed transmission and saved lives.
“As the restrictions on economic activity and daily life are eased, it is vital that all South Africans maintain that firm sense of personal responsibility. In all that we do, in every sphere of life, we must take care of our own health and the health of others.”
Also bear in mind the following statement from www.sacoronavirus.co.za under the heading ‘Don’t panic’. “There is no need to panic – 82% of Covid-19 cases are mild: patients only experience a slight fever, fatigue and a cough. Only about 6% of patients need intensive care. The vast majority of people can stay at home and get better without hospital treatment.”
As the active cases slowly increase (active = positive/recovered/died), South Africans seemed to forget all about the ‘Don’t panic’ initiative. Police, army, healthcare, and politicians seemed to jump on the panic wave and the result created visions of another failed, militant African state in the making, including our newly achieved junk status.
When any business makes rules that the employees do not understand, there is confusion and suspicion. This is true in business, in the home as well as in politics.
Suspicions about people gaining from banning the sale of certain items, government driving its political agenda, and assistance for only companies of a certain population group abound – and all because an open book policy was not followed.
The SAIMC stands firm behind the president of South Africa, but at the same time, we question why the government found it necessary to be so secretive about why certain decisions were made, other decisions were made one day and thrown out the next, etc. It creates bad impressions about the motives of people in power and the competence of those behind the decisions.
One thing that President Ramaphosa did get right though was to unite the country behind him at the start of Level 5 lockdown. Then, everything seemed to go haywire when we moved to Level 4. It seems that it is time for Mr. Ramaphosa to take back the reins of power and start leading the country again, with the authority and understanding he has shown in the past.
Yours in automation, Johan Maartens.
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