The late mercurial musician, Prince, once wrote a hit song about a “big disease with a little name”. The song was Sign ‘O the Times, referring to the AIDS pandemic which swept across the world from the early 80’s. Today, 33 years later, the world has been rocked on its heels by another big disease with a little name: COVID 19. South Africa and the rest of the world were deeply impacted by AIDS, but governments worldwide were caught unawares by the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic which sped across the world like tsunami waves. The ripple effects were in fact wave surges themselves felt in epicentres from East to West and North to South smashing through developed and under developed societies at will. In unprecedented moves in living memory, the world was forced to lock down as nature revealed the fragility of man’s dominion over all creatures.
The South African government was quick off the mark and won praise from the World Health Organisation for its decisive leadership in effecting a hard lockdown in a bid, both to save lives and prepare the health delivery system for the worst. The result was a relatively low number of cases in the first couple of months of the first case while some countries in the northern hemisphere were reeling with deaths in the tens of thousands. The numbers in South Africa have risen since the easing of restrictions but we will never know what the situation would have been like had the leadership dithered. In any lockdown situation, human beings will yearn for wider social contact and, of course, there was the moral dilemma of continuing to save lives through a hard lockdown or lose lives due to insistence that life goes on and stop the economy from going comatose. At some point, nevertheless, the economy was going to have resume operating normally, if such a word existed anymore, because it would not make sense either to lose lives through hunger, malnutrition or the country to the absence of economic activity. At the same time, there was the question of saving the education sector’s academic year.
South Africa is known to vie with Brazil for most unequal nation in the world status and, worse, given South Africa’s apartheid history, has a massive infrastructure backlog in education. The behaviour of COVID 19 dictated a change in behaviour for human beings across the planet. Social conventions like shaking hands, greeting kisses and hugging became taboo. One of the simplest acts of human behaviour, hand washing, became a compulsory thing to do. Politicians the world over, Minister of Health, celebrities and ordinary folk all joined the chorus of voices that exhorted the practice of hand washing with soap “while singing happy birthday” as a simple way to stay safe. For the South African government, this also meant that the backlogs in water supply and sanitation had to be tackled urgently. And thus began a massive logistical exercise to supply, deliver and install water tanks to 3500 schools across the country according to Department of Basic Education officials in their presentation, at the end of June, to a parliamentary portfolio committee. In addition, the government officials indicated that they had pulled out all the stops to supply toilets to 1636 schools to try and ensure that the phased return of pupils to schools mitigated rather than enhanced the spread of COVID 19.
The “big disease with a little name” was forcing governments to spend millions of unbudgeted funds to create temporary solutions to save lives. The hard lock down meant that no activity could take place and so when the Minister of Basic Education provide a target opening date for the reopening of schools, the race was on to deliver the water tanks and toilets. Government’s logic was that the virus was going to be prevalent for a year or two and that it would be unrealistic to keep schools closed over that period. The lockdown was, therefore, planned to give government time to prepare for a resumption of normal life with the necessary coping or mitigating tools in place. Over two months, day and night, trucks rolled out of suppliers to the four corners of the country in a non-stop rolling action while government bureaucrats met with implementing agents in virtual meetings from 6 am to 8 am every day to plot, plan, manage and monitor the implementation of the emergency water programme.
The DBSA and the Mvula Trust were implementing agents for the water and sanitation programmes in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape.
South Africa is a fascinating African country. Its constitution enshrines a bill of rights that allows protest. As the saying goes, “everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial”. Activism by business forums and local communities often combine to push the boundaries of freedom beyond the fence of responsibility for the common good. It is not unusual, for instance, for communities to set a local library on fire, because they are not happy with the lack of another government service like a clinic. The emergency water programme was, consequently, not without its challenges and implementing agents reported back on criminal behaviour by elements in local communities. In Limpopo province, communities starved of water took it upon themselves to hijack and divert water tankers while they were en route to filling water tanks in schools. Nationally, vandalism continued to wreak havoc with tax payer funded infrastructure to the detriment of local communities. At the time of going to press over 1600 schools had been vandalised over a three-month period. In the riches province, Gauteng, one school was vandalised six times. The same school benefitted from the sanitation programme and had both internal and external fittings, including the toilet units, ripped out and stolen from their Grade R centre.
Not to be left out, in the Eastern Cape business forums insisted on getting contracts for their local members, some of whose work presented quality problems in the implementation of their tasks. Despite all these challenges, the South African government performed admirably in executing a daunting task in a bid to save lives.
