COVID-19
HOW CAN THIS BE JUSTIFIED?
– a true story –
by Gerhard Papenfus
Yesterday, a very high ranking government official requested me to explain my position as articulated in my statement “Let ‘them’ go without pay” on 25 April 2020 (click here to view).
My response was that I was unsure which part of my statement was unclear to him. I then informed him (per email) about something that transpired just minutes before he directed his request to me.
Yesterday afternoon, I received a message about a sole proprietor/hairdresser who, out of financial desperation, opened up her salon – obviously illegally. The SAPS got wind of this, clamped down on her activities, and confiscated her equipment.
I then put it to this official that this person has two options in order to sustain herself financially: begging or prostitution. There is a third option: crime.
In view of the above scenario, I request any political and/or administrative decision-maker, scientist, or mathematician, defending the current lockdown scenario, to advise this individual on the way forward. (Click here to make your suggestion).
The answer, or answers, will be published and will forthwith serve as advice, from the decision-makers, to the millions who find themselves in a similar predicament.
If politicians and government officials placed themselves (and only they can decide to do it) in the same no-income scenario the private sector is subjected to, they would have adopted an entirely different and much more pragmatic approach towards the fight against Covid-19.
For more information:
NEASA Media Department
Marietha Thirion
marietha@neasa.co.za
We are all in this together.
Privileged and challenged to be South African.