Health minister Zweli Mkhize might think he’s being transparent, but he isn’t. Most days at around 8pm we get a number — on Sunday it was 6,783 infections – and another number, in this case 131 deaths. The problem is, there’s never enough consistent detail to make sense of what this really means.
Occasionally there are some titbits, describing the age of the people who died and what other diseases they had that had made them susceptible to Covid-19. Sometimes there are details about the location of the clusters of cases and the trends in infections. But many days it’s just the cold numbers. In the absence of consistent detail and context, Mkhize might as well be tabulating his six favourite films — mildly interesting, but ultimately of little use.
For some, this isn’t a problem. We have to trust that government is doing the right thing for us, they say. But not only is that stunningly naive, it’s the sort of five-star docility that provides ill-intentioned politicians cover to use Covid-19 as a smokescreen to do all manner of unspeakable things to their citizens. (To be clear, there is no suggestion that Mkhize is that sort of politician. Sadly, others around the world clearly are.)
For insight into exactly how this is happening, read The Economist’s “Pandemic of Power Grabs” article. (It’s free, but you need to register to read it.)
“Wannabe strongmen are grabbing coercive tools they have always craved — in order, they say, to protect public health,” it writes. It’s the pandemic, dictators argue, when they cancel elections, ban demonstrations or toss irksome journalists in jail.
In all, 84 countries, including SA, have enacted some sort of state of disaster, giving politicians extra powers. The worst dictators, inevitably, will keep those powers long after Covid-19 is a distant memory. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijan’s notoriously brutal President Ilham Aliyev all come to mind.
China has also used this opportunity to, among other things, arrest 15 high-profile democrats in Hong Kong. The country has never tolerated dissent (or bad publicity), but the fact that last year’s Hong Kong protests were broadcast live stopped China’s Communist Party from indulging its worst instincts. Now, with every camera crew otherwise occupied, China is pushing through atrocious laws, like one that allows those who “insult the national anthem” to be jailed.
Closer to home, we have Uganda, a country ruled by the tyrannical Yoweri Museveni and still living in the middle ages when it comes to human rights, which arrested 23 gay and transgender people living in a shelter a month ago, supposedly for breaking the rules on gathering during Covid-19.
Today, a month later, they’re still in jail, unable to speak to their lawyers. “Covid-19 was used as an excuse to get them remanded in prison. And Covid-19 is still being used as an excuse not to bring them to court,” says one of their lawyers.
It shouldn’t be any surprise that Museveni, who has ruled Uganda as a caricature of a tinpot dictator for 34 years, should be using Covid-19 to further his craven ambitions. This is, after all, a man who signed the anti-homosexuality bill into law in 2014.
Museveni has also threatened that “politicians who try to distribute food will be arrested and charged with attempted murder”. And it isn’t just idle talk: opposition member of parliament Francis Zaake was arrested and tortured for distributing food on April 19. Afterwards, Zaake was so injured that a magistrate refused to entertain charging him because of his “ill health”.
Museveni obviously has no business to still be leading a country. But he won’t be the only one using this pandemic to cloak his vilest political ambitions.
As The Economist asks: “How many dissidents have been jailed for violating quarantine rules? Of the vast sums being mobilised to tackle the pandemic, how much has been stolen by strongmen and their flunkeys?”
Censorship kills
As the despots run wild, journalists are, predictably, being crushed.
Take Madagascar, whose President Andry Rajoelina says the country has found a “herbal cure” for the coronavirus, made from a bitter root called artemisia mixed with other medicinal plants such as ravintsara. It’s a tonic he’s now marketing as Covid-Organics. Rajoelina claims his remedy has already cured two people, adding: “We can change the history of the entire world.”
But is this just snake oil? At this point it’s hard to say. What we do know is that Madagascar has recorded 149 cases, but, it says, no deaths.
Nonetheless, Madagascar’s own medical academy, Anamem, seems doubtful, saying “scientific evidence [has] not been established” regarding Covid-Organics. The World Health Organisation is equally reluctant to endorse it.
While Rajoelina says tests have been done that verify his claims, the BBC reports that his chief of staff admitted that it was “tested on fewer than 20 people over a period of three weeks”.
But there’s another reason to be wary of anything Rajoelina says: those who dare to criticise his response to Covid-19 are in danger of being swiftly jailed.
This is what happened to journalist Arphine Helisoa, the publishing director at the Ny Valosoa (The Reward) newspaper, in April. She was arrested, the government said, because she “spread false news and incited hatred toward the president”. The issue appears to be a report on a French news website, which claimed that Rajoelina was a “killer” because of his poor response to the epidemic. She is still in jail.
In this context, you’d be wise to take anything Rajoelina says with a pinch of salt. Anything deemed less than glowing about his Covid-19 response, or sceptical about his miracle cure, will doubtless attract great vengeance and furious anger from his henchmen.
The extra mile
This is where it comes back to Mkhize and the need for far more openness.
Unlike Hungary’s Orbán or Uganda’s Museveni, Mkhize and President Cyril Ramaphosa are indeed democrats. Ramaphosa has stressed, every time he’s spoken, of the balancing act required between individual rights and the actions needed to tackle the pandemic. But there are others in his party who don’t share the same tolerance for dissent.
In this article for the Daily Maverick, the peerless Ray Hartley and Greg Mills delve into exactly this danger.
Mkhize should recognise the enormity of this moment, what it means for his government to suspend its citizens’ freedoms and the need to go the extra mile in constantly justifying the action taken. He needs to publish consistently as much data as he can — not as little — about the infection rate and the models used to predict the trajectory.
But what he absolutely cannot do is put out the scantest detail and say: “Just trust us, we’ll tell you when it’s safe to come out.” There’s no need to spell out what happens at the end of that story.
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