Ramaphosa: ‘We’ve got to plan for the worst, as the worst is still coming’

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned his citizens that the worst effects of the coronavirus pandemic are still yet to come, as the country de-escalates its lockdown measures and people returned to work on Monday. 

“We’ve got to plan for the worst. We are informed that the worst is still coming. We are going to get more people infected. The important thing is that we need to show that we lessen the pace at which these infections take place," he said on Tuesday.

The president was speaking to the KwaZulu-Natal Provncial Command Council in Durban, the group responsible for the province’s response to Covid-19. 

He advised individuals to continue taking steps to prevent the spread fo the virus, including social distancing in public and regular hand washing. 

Mr Ramaphosa also called for collective action to help bolster South Africa’s economy, which had slid into recession even before the pandemic hit.

“Covid-19 has brought about the total destruction of the economy. The economy, as we speak now, is under a great deal of stress. We now collectively must respond to how we will rebuild and reposition the economy.”

He compared the effort required to a ‘post-war situation’ and said that now was the time to start rebuilding not only the economy but civil society as a whole.

“The time has arrived as, we move down other levels of the lockdown, the time has arrived to clean up our country. We now need to embark on a massive campaign countrywide to clean up South Africa,” he said. 

The president called on his government to deal with matters of public hygiene, including waste dumps, public streets and high density townships.

“There is no reason our people should continue living in squalor,” he said. 

Photo: GCIS/Flickr