Last month parliament extended the State of Emergency by another six months under some controversial circumstances. The opposition was against the extension but it was the ruling party that had its day in the house of parliament through its majority.
The curfew times were stipulated as 8pm to 4am and later moved to 10pm and this was highly welcomed by members of the public. As a retired military veteran, a boy raised by a strict single mother and a product of a strict boarding school at St. Joseph’s College, I fully understand the meaning of the word curfew.
But in this country the true meaning of curfew has been watered down to mean a time of partying and all sorts of rebellious behaviour. I live in Mogoditshane in the suburb of Khudiring where it’s supposed to be quieter and more peaceful because it’s a new development area largely still under construction. But this is not the case as Friday and Saturday nights get as wild as they can.
Chill parties still happen in the middle of a pandemic and a curfew declared under a national State of Emergency. The gatherings begin as soon as sunset and go on until early morning. Because of the curfew, patrons of these parties elect to stay overnight at the venue until the next day. On the other hand, shebeens are running as normal though they choose to close a bit after midnight.
Such behaviour is seriously compromising the security of homes. One thing the State of Emergency has clearly achieved is to bring down the rate of crime. I am personally involved in the neighbourhood security initiative and as men in the area we keep watch of the neighbourhood at different times of the night. We can attest that movement at night in the previous year was almost none existent.
It was until in this current lap of the SoE that we have seen things change. Movement of suspicious characters at night has begun but we often send the boys running for their lives. The community is beginning to worry about the return of criminal activities, but as someone who has some understanding of epidemiology, I have sleepless nights about the future of this country.
Professor Judith Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town stated this in 2003 in regard to pandemics; “The next epidemic to come after the Spanish Flu of 1918 is estimated to be much worse with a threat to 10% of the world population. This will happen with much compliments to the intricate ways of the current means of travel. Air travel will accelerate the next pandemic”
She was teaching on the dynamics of disease transmission and on how epidemics can quickly transform into pandemics. Professor Head sites the Spanish Flu of 1918 as a typical example of political failure to act in arresting an epidemic before its development into another stage. The year marked the end of World War 1 and keeping soldiers in quarantine was not politically right a decision.
On a similar vein, the government’s approach to dealing with the Indian variant is critical and the decisions should not be politically influenced. The best people to fight a pandemic are epidemiologists and not politicians or even doctors. Similarly, if war hostilities break out, it is not teachers or miners who will be in the frontline fighting enemy forces. It is the military that will surely take its place and do what it knows and understands best.
Because epidemics and pandemics come in cycles that are completed after decades and at times centuries, the work of epidemiologists is often kept in the background shadows. But this particular study has increasingly become an important aspect in how public health and clinical medicine approach the outbreak of diseases. With the advent of Covid-19, the stage is set for this profession and what the rest of us need to do is to adhere.
There are two aspects that will either make us or break us as a nation with the Indian variant among us. Government must strengthen all law enforcement agencies in order to enable law enforcers to act decisively. The chill sessions must be crushed in the head. Alcohol must be seriously restricted. It takes serious political will to enforce the SoE in order to achieve good results.
By any measure, Indians were not foolish to arrive at this stage of their crisis in their country. The variant is deadly and uncontrollable. With the type of our health infrastructure which is already showing cracks and serious faults, we are headed for real trouble. It is not the time to blame the Indians for bringing this variant as some are already doing, but it is time to take personal responsibility on making sure that it does not spread.
Enforcement of the SoE will certainly become part of the key dynamics of disease prevention. And this is where law enforcement applies. Political leadership was informed and educated on the nature of this particular pandemic. They took critical decisions of curtailing freedom of movement but recently things have just started getting loose. Curfews are violated persistently by lawless rogues while the law abiding citizens remain at home. The continuing state of affairs no longer provides any reason for law abiding citizens to continue in the same behavioural trajectory.
The current SoE should be kept to the right measure and fully enforced because that should inform our future public policy on health and particularly on how to deal with such emergencies in future. So law enforcement agencies must begin to act. These agencies are a key component of preventive measures.
If law enforcing agencies allow the situation to deteriorate to what it is now in this country, we might just be on a path to losing the battle against Covid-19. Police visibility is very low on our streets from the time the curfew begins and with reinforcements from the military; the fight against the spread of the variant must begin.
