Jonhenry Wilson, Cape Town: Awkward limbo of two steps forward and one back…

Public reaction to this week’s national address from Cyril Ramaphosa has been predictably negative, but some of the battle was won by the South African president simply stepping up to the microphone again.

Ramaphosa had set expectation and a precedent with his back-to-back addresses — at appropriate junctures — as lockdown ensued.

Sentiment grew increasingly negative during weeks of radio silence thereafter. The skewed influence of Twitter marauders and “Karens” of Facebook, unfortunately, took centre stage. The misinformed gained traction and the uninformed became gatvol.

Vexing to be told to stay at home while livelihoods are broken down

Ramaphosa and the Presidency took two steps forward, but one back with this week’s return to the lectern. Unless he delivered a proverbial golden goose – perhaps appease the maddening crowd with hard, fast, definitive rulings – the aftermath was always going to be pessimistic. And here we are.

It is vexing to be told to buckle down and stay at home when livelihoods built over years and decades are being broken down over a couple of months.

But there is plenty of perspective to be gained when looking at the country’s death and infection tally due to the coronavirus, even if these numbers are significantly smaller compared to other countries.

SA requires particularly careful tempering

Granted, the United Kingdom, United States and other first-world nations have problems of their own, but South Africa’s third-world struggles – townships, mass poverty, crime – require particularly careful tempering during a worldwide pandemic.

Seven weeks, indeed, is a long time to go through involuntary life changes at plenty of financial and emotional expense. The period feels even longer if the effects of the virus have not been experienced on your very doorstep. Many have been infected, but many more remain unaffected health-wise.

Individuals weathering hardships for collective good

And so we must remain in an awkward limbo, a state of flux even, trusting and submitting to a leadership we are told has the country’s best interest at heart. Individuals must weather hardships for the collective good. Level 4 will hopefully be downgraded to 3 in June.

But if it must remain at Level 4, particularly in the Western Cape and other COVID-19 hotspots, we’ll deal, because that’s what resilient South Africans do. How long law-abiding citizenship can hold off corner-cutting, subtle revolt even, remains in the balance.