BY MICHELLE ESAU
“The road is long, with many a winding turn….” That’s the opening line of one of the most famous The Hollies’ songs, He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother. The song may have been released in 1969, but the lyrics pretty much sum up recovery efforts in post-pandemic South Africa.
It is a long road, with too many turns to mention. There are potholes, tolls, roadworks and accident scenes along the way.
Two words are complicated by countless real-life challenges - economic recovery.
This is the focus of our annual lecture series at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) this Friday. Our discussions will cover food insecurity, unemployment and rocketing living costs - just some of the roadblocks hampering our recovery mission.
Everything is going up - petrol, food, electricity blackouts, Covid cases - and there seems to be a collective feeling that “we just can’t win!”. All of these factors exacerbate the challenges we face on this continent, and in our country in particular. Remember, we were already on the back foot before the coronavirus pandemic hit us.
Countries in the “rich world” also face pandemic-related challenges, insofar as inflation, unemployment and the effects of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine are concerned. In nations like South Africa, already high levels of inequality and the chasm between the haves and have-nots are increasing. There’s an uphill struggle to deal with the effects of the pandemic and how it has impacted lives and livelihoods.
There are also increased interest rates, and the resultant impact on consumer behaviour.
People’s ability to afford homes and to service loans is a real worry. What about savings? This is beyond most South Africans’ means. After debits have gone off there simply isn’t anything left to put away for a rainy day. And it’s storming right now.
Savings and reserves are what carried many businesses in the “rich world” when the pandemic struck. Many small businesses in South Africa are really micro-enterprises, or “survivalist” businesses. With nothing to sustain them during the strict lockdown months, they were really hard-hit and many lost everything.
Food insecurity is another challenge.
In the first two months of this year in South Africa, 199 children younger than five died from hunger and malnutrition - an alarming statistic. You can’t teach a hungry child.
We talk about scarce skills that need to be developed, but if our children are hungry, maybe having just one meal a day - which could be a cup of soup, or two slices of bread - how do we address the scarce skills challenges within our country?
It’s also worth pointing out that South Africa has among the highest rates of TB cases, and one of the highest HIV and Aids infection rates worldwide. The prevalence of issues linked to food security exacerbate these complexities. We may have access to medication to deal with these health challenges, but if people don’t have food, the efficacy of the medication is reduced.
With Ukraine being one of the world’s biggest exporters of seed oils, wheat and corn, the conflict there has also affected our food security.
Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s Development Trust Lecture Series focuses on UWC. In the context of UWC and the Economic and Management Sciences faculty, it looks at integrity and leadership, and explores how we can contribute to thought leadership.
UWC hosts the sixth annual event on Friday. We want to focus on thought leadership within the context of specific socio-economic issues that South Africa faces. That will be the main focus. This year, we’ve given serious thought to what ordinary South Africans have been grappling with.
We’ve thought long and hard about a contemporary and relevant focus through which we can contribute to thinking and planning with regard to broader national challenges.
One thing that stands out for me is the challenge around our economy and how we plan for recovery going into a post-Covid South Africa era.
Professor Michelle Esau is the Dean of the University of the Western Cape’s Economic and Management Sciences faculty.
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