Everyone is a lockdown ‘expert’ – but it’s not that simple: South African billionaire
South African retail tycoon Christo Wiese believes that the country’s economy is robust enough to survive the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking in an interview with CNBC, the Shoprite founder said that the coronavirus is worse than any disaster he could imagine, but noted that South Africans are particularly resilient and will adapt.
“I believe that through this crisis, a lot of things may shake out correctly in a shorter sense of time than they may otherwise have done so. People talk about about ‘will the economy survive?’ and I don’t know what they mean by that.
“Put simply, there will be an economy when the dust has settled on this thing, so it is not a question of survival (but rather) how we adapt.”
He added that he was grateful not to be in president Cyril Ramaphosa’s position in deciding whether to extend the country’s lockdown or re-open the economy.
“We all, by now, are fully informed about what the risks are and what the downsides are and it is not a South African problem, but a global problem. Very tough calls will have to be made,” he said.
“Having said that, people have learnt a lot of lessons over the last few weeks and hopefully those lessons will be properly applied so that we can start with gradual relaxations as we are seeing in other countries such as the United States and the UK.
“I am just hoping that wisdom and common sense will prevail.”
Wiese said that in his personal view, more has to be done by the government to help get businesses and individuals back on their feet after the lockdown has lifted.
“We will pay a price for it eventually. But the choice again is a simple one: do you lessen the pain now to the extent that people will survive and then pay the price in the years going forward? Or do you deal with the risk of blowing people out now?
“So again, it is a very difficult choice to make. The problem in these circumstances is that everybody is an expert, but it’s not that simple.”
What happens next?
Cabinet is expected to meet on Monday to a plot a way forward for South Africa once the five-week coronavirus lockdown has been lifted.
Western Cape premier Alan Winde – who was party to government talks on Saturday – indicated that the current “full lockdown” is likely to be eased to a “partial lockdown” for certain economic sectors in the coming weeks.
Speaking in an interview with News24, Winde said that this aligns with government’s warning that life won’t be ‘back to normal’.
“At the end of the lockdown, we can’t go back to where we were. Every aspect of life would be affected, and would have to adapt to a ‘new normal’,” he said.
“Everything in the health department that gets done to try to flatten the curve, has a converse reaction, and that is in the economy going the opposite way.
“So we also need to try to flatten the negative curve in the economy, at the same time. And that means giving some kind of leeway, such as liberating certain parts of the economy from the current strictures.”
Loading ...