The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly shown us what it means to live in unprecedented times. In the following opinion piece, Michelle Groenewald – a lecturer in economics at the North-West University (NWU) – shares her views on some encouraging measures that have taken place of late. She asks the question: can South Africans demand a better tomorrow?

This virus has highlighted both abroad, and here at home, the debilitating realities of inequality, poverty and injustice. In going against the precedent set by many of my fellow economists, I won’t make any predictions about what is to come; it is simply too uncertain a future to do so. However, I do think it might be valuable to take cognisance of some potentially hopeful events that have recently taken place.

In a remarkable display of government capacity, the minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu, has confirmed the delivery of 1580 water tanks to needy communities in the space of three days. One of the questions we should be asking is: how to harness this type of urgency and efficiency, for the provision of essential services outside of the confines of the Disaster Management Act?

More broadly, whilst the South African government’s response has certainly not been flawless - most notably the worrying reports of violence against citizens from the SAPS and the SANDF – we have been praised internationally for having acted faster and more efficiently than a host of other countries. Compare this to Donal Trump’s comment on potential US deaths from COVID-19: “If we have between 100 000 and 200 000 [deaths] we’ve all together done a very good job”. Can you imagine the type of outcry from the South African public if our president were to make such concessions?

Finally, while South African’s wellbeing is extricably intertwined with an economy that is going to struggle severely to recover from this crisis, this may be an opportunity to open up to better ideas for how we build a more equitable and fair economy for more people. An open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa from more than 300 economists and social scientists, has called for more to be done to mitigate the harm of COVID-19. Perhaps greater engagement on what we should really be valuing in our economy is possible, given these extraordinary times.

Make no mistake, no one should wish for a pandemic to be necessary to make these sorts of changes. But given the reality of the situation, maybe – just maybe, we might all be emboldened to demand a better tomorrow.

Michelle Groenewald.