Editorial: Now that the virus is here...

President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize have been at pains to tell South Africans to not panic now that the first cases of coronavirus have been recorded in the country.

They have been urging that we exercise common sense and do things such as being alert, steering clear of sick people and, of course, washing our hands rigorously and religiously.

But then you wonder ... in a country where, just on Friday, residents in QwaQwa were protesting over a lack of water – a dire situation which they say has gone unsolved for years – how exactly are those residents meant to practice hand washing and basic hygiene if the outbreak were to reach widespread levels?

What are the people in places such as Makhanda and Komani, where life without reliable water supply has become a norm, supposed to do to protect themselves?

The same goes for the residents of Hammanskraal, where water supply is intermittent and of disgraceful quality.

And water is just the one aspect. There’s also the public health system.

EFF MP Naledi Chirwa’s speech during the parliamentary debate on the country’s state of readiness for the Covid-19 outbreak gave us a chilling reminder as to why concerns over what would be if the disease became widespread in the country aren’t without base.

“If coronavirus can make a country such as China build a hospital in weeks, and yet still claim thousands of lives, what do you think it will do to South Africa, which takes 10 years to build one dysfunctional maternity ward?” she charged.

Read: SA confirms first case of the coronavirus

While no one wants to add to – nor create mass hysteria over the disease being in the country – it is little wonder South Africans are scoffing at messaging like “wash your hands” or “we are prepared” coming from the government.

On Friday, Mkhize reiterated that he accepted the criticism that indeed the public health sector was beset with ills and said they were addressing those issues, but right now we don’t need a glancing over of the real concerns people are voicing out, even through jokes.

Perhaps, added to telling us to wash our hands, the government should actually get down to telling us the nitty-gritty of just how and when it plans on plugging the gaping holes before the crisis escalates.

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