Theme: COVID-19

Just a few months ago, many South Sudanese were breathing a sigh of relief, believing that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic had largely passed them by. Today, a virulent second wave is sweeping through the country causing huge harm to people’s health and wellbeing, damaging the already dire economy, and further interrupting the stagnating peace process. The number of cases is headed towards the 10,000 mark and there have been more than 100 deaths, although the true number of people affected by the virus is likely to be much higher given testing is largely limited to travellers and those with symptoms.

The celebration of the International Day of Girls and Women in Science, on 11 February 2021, as well as the International Day of the Rights of Women on 8 March 2021 gave me the opportunity to pay a resounding tribute to and reflect on the many contributions of women scientists from Central Africa in the fight against COVID -19, which are largely unrecognised. Since the start of 2020, the world has been confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic, which is wreaking havoc among the populations of the entire world. While Africa and our sub-region in particular remains relatively less affected than other parts of the world, its effects remain to be feared, especially since the best prepared health systems in the world seem relatively powerless in the face of the pandemic.

Tomorrow, 11 March 2021, marks a year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic. A year ago, the world as we know it and our daily routines were disrupted to an unprecedented extent overnight. In an effort to curb the spread, governments across the world put in place lockdowns, quarantine measures, stay-in-place orders, closed workplaces and education institutions. Almost immediately, it became very clear that although the pandemic was a great equalizer in the sense that no one was immune to the virus, it was also a great destabilizer of many socio-economic and development trajectories and social justice agenda, least of all: our mission for gender equality. In many ways, the pandemic has exposed so many of our shortcomings in our quest for a fairer and more equitable world.

Like all countries caught in the first wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Ramaphosa government has had to take some tough decisions: ease into a hard lock-down regulation or take a softer but cautious approach. South Africa was quick out of the starting blocks opting for a hard lockdown that imposed strict curfew restrictions that only allowed certain essential sectors to operate, forced small and medium businesses to endure greater strain on their operations, limited social gatherings and urged social distancing and mask wearing as part of the personal protective measures. The harshest impact was on the alcohol and tobacco industries that saw the sale of these products being banned.