The social contract we entered into to defeat Covid-19 is not over. It came in several parts. Inasmuch as we accepted that the lockdown would destroy jobs and livelihoods, this contract contained an implicit promissory note that in return, and after the lockdown is lifted, those jobs would be recreated. Resetting and restructuring our economy is integral to the next stage of Covid-19 prevention.
Social justice
Malnutrition, health services and democracy: The responsibility to speak out
As I went for one of my early-morning runs last week, it was a rubbish collection day. As I panted up and down hills on the comfortable, sequestered roads around Observatory, I noticed many more people than usual foraging in the bins. These were not just waste-pickers. On that day the small army of informal workers who sift rubbish for a living was supplemented by people picking through bins for scraps of food. Household food waste was being packed into plastic bags in much the same way as a more wealthy shopper carries away foodstuffs from still well-stocked supermarkets.
Our message to the World Health Assembly: Ignore Trump, protect the right to health, save lives
This week it is likely that the world will record its five millionth confirmed Covid-19 case – and yet the pandemic has very far from run its course.
Another Country: Hungry Children and the Quest for Four Big Pots
If Alexandra was sitting on a westward facing hill it would look directly over to Sandton, accusingly. Instead it faces to the East and is invisible to its well-heeled neighbour. Another country. This makes it possible for those who live and work in Africa’s richest square mile to ignore the suffering to which they are umbilically connected and to shun their responsibilities even in a time of crisis. But this article is not a story about guilting the rich; it is a positive story about those who get on with the business of saving lives, oblivious to their hardened wealthy neighbours. As if they live in another country. It’s a kind of fairytale.
Science, Citizens and Democracy – the need to hear all voices
There are rough days ahead in which we are going to see death, disease and panic. But if a pattern of questioning the bonafides of critics is entrenched it will be bad news for national unity in the response to Covid-19. Ultimately, it will leave the government with a choice: a continued lockdown enforced by brute force and fear, or a meaningless lockdown honoured only in the default. Neither is what we want, and the worst thing is that with either option, Covid-19 would be the winner.
Constitution packs a real punch:opinion piece published in the Mail and Guardian
Fourteen years ago, our freely elected representatives adopted the Constitution – in part – to “free the potential of each person”, “[h]eal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights”. So it is strange that Jimmy Manyi – president of the Black Management Forum (BMF) and Director-General of Labour – asks why it seems “that the Constitution does not support the transformation agenda of this country”. On the contrary, transformation lies at the heart of the constitution, and is its raison d’être.
Screw the poor? How deep is our commitment to equality?
In recent weeks President Cyril Ramaphosa has made two speeches in which he has made far-reaching promises and stated plainly his commitment to use the crisis to rapidly accelerate efforts to build an equal and fair society out of the ruins of the economy left by Covid-19 and the lockdown.
Overlooking the missing millions – another ‘stain on our national conscience’
In the last few weeks it has often been said that SARS-Cov-2 is a virus that knows no boundaries – be they national, socio-economic, class, race or ethnicity. Although Covid-19 the disease has malicious preferences for the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, the virus itself doesn’t discriminate in its infectiousness. If you are a human being, you are at risk. It’s a great leveller of artificial denominators based on class, gender and colour.
Protect and Serve (Food), in Happiness Valley on Freedom Day
On Monday, 27 April 2020, at an informal settlement called Happiness Valley, SANDF Major Andre Meisner told Maverick Citizen, ‘we are not at war with the community’ and invited the writer to participate in a military mission where no blood was shed and where only bread and not bullets were fired. It felt like one of those days that could only happen in South Africa.
I Ride What I Like – Thoughts from a bicycle on State(s) of Nation
In a world without Covid-19, Thursday would have seen the start of the annual joberg2c mountain bike race but, like many sporting events, it has been cancelled. The field on the outskirts of Heidelberg, where hundreds of nervous men, women and their bikes usually gather for the start, was empty this year.