Tag: state of disaster

Day… No, wait…

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And that was that. A last minute announcement of a Presidential address to the nation, which was then (as is tradition) late in starting. And the news that the State of Disaster, whose regulations had been with us for 750 days, and which provided the framework upon which the lockdown and everything else Covid-related was attached, was summarily ended at midnight last night.

With it go many of the rules and regulations which have governed our lives for the past two years, although there is some confusion as to where we stand with mask wearing and 50% capacity in venues, given that it seems that there is no longer any legislation under which to enforce that, but we’re still supposed to do it. That legislation will be forthcoming later this month, but in the meantime, there are a big grey area.

Gone too then is the 6000 miles… The Lockdown Diaries category: 767 posts of thoughts, opinions, news and – now – memories of the lockdown. Including one where our neighbour told the local WhatsApp group that she had microwaved her newspaper, and another where I hit 91.9kph running in the back garden.

Oh, and the reminder that in April 2020, I went to the supermarket (once):

Halcyon days.

To be honest, we haven’t really been locked down for a long while now, and last night’s change won’t really make much difference to anyone’s lives here.

But, let the record show that South Africa’s State of Disaster is officially over. And before I hit PUBLISH, let me click that The Lockdown Diaries button one last time. It’s been wild.

Day 684 – Nearly done?

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There will come a time when I end this section on the blog called “The Lockdown Diaries“. And that might be soon.
The fact is that we’re not really in much of a lockdown anymore, but the “State of Disaster Diaries” seemed a bit wordy when I started. But there is much talk about the SoD being dropped real soon now, probably because it’s not actually doing very much at the moment. The kids are back at school every day, there’s no curfew, nightclubs are clubbing at night, we can buy beer and wine, and so it seems that there’s no real need for any further regulations regulating… virtually nothing.

At the first hint of this possibility, all the anti-lockdown crews suddenly renewed their vociferous calls for a return to normality (whatever that means), so that when the inevitable change comes, they can claim that they were the ones who instigated it. It’s a bit like that time when I called for the sun to rise in the morning, and wow: guess what happened the very next day?!? All because I suggested it.

Some people might like to pretend that they influenced a government policy; I told God what to do.

Day 600 – Nothing to see here

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It’s Day 600 of our Covid Lockdown in South Africa. And what do we have to show for it?

Well, actually very little Covid, to be fair. Some of the lowest numbers since this whole thing began, which sounds great.

But while being very welcome, this favourable scenario is more just because of where we are in the cycle than specifically because of any government action.

Our State of Disaster (the government/legal definition one, rather than just the actual condition of the country) persists, much to the chagrin of those people on the internet. But the fact is, we’re just sitting here waiting for the Fourth Wave, at which point everything would be reinstated anyway. And there are actually very few limits on living our lives right now. A 4 hour curfew each evening is just about it. And all that keeping nightclubs closed is doing is delaying things a little bit as our frankly terrible vaccination numbers fail to make any measurable difference.

We’re in for another heavy lockdown sometime over Christmas and New Year and while everyone – most especially those people – will tell us “I told you so”, they’re the ones that have done the absolute least to prevent it. Every vaccine helps, and while we could be far in making people safer, and protecting our health service, we have to put up with fake news, hyperbole and hysteria from the idiots in the peanut gallery.

It would be hilarious to watch if it wasn’t going to start costing lives in the next few weeks.