The vital need to lift the lockdown – IRR
28 April 2020
Mounting hunger, hardship and economic decline underscore the necessity of South Africa’s lifting the current lockdown, the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has argued in its submission to the government on the national response to the Covid-19 crisis.
Details of the submission will be presented in a media briefing on Thursday morning by its author, IRR Head of Policy Research Dr Anthea Jeffery.
Jeffery notes that estimates of the economic cost of the current lockdown range from R13bn to R20bn a day. Given that the economy – after decades of mismanagement, poor policy, and corruption – was on its knees even before the lockdown began, it ‘simply cannot cope with this enormous further blow’.
‘Worse still, the lockdown cannot and does not work in teeming townships and informal settlements, where homes cluster closely together, many structures house families of four or more, and scarce communal taps and toilets are shared among hundreds of residents.’