The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) has urged the government to ‘lean towards opening up activity (rather) than following a rigid approach that adds little to mitigating the pandemic’.
It said in a statement that while the lockdown ‘has had a devastating effect’ on the economy and South Africans’ livelihoods, the benefit to public healthcare ‘is not as clear, given the exponential rise in positive cases, hospital admissions and mortality numbers’ over the lockdown period.
The statement comes as speculation mounts that the government has been advised to lift the bans on the sale of alcohol and cigarettes.
SACCI said: ‘The balance should rather lean towards opening up activity than following a rigid approach that adds little to mitigating the pandemic.
‘This strategy would have ensured that those returning to work would not be going to unsafe workplaces, and neither would they as individuals, be unintended asymptomatic spreaders at the workplace.’
SACCI noted that while business confidence had improved since April, July’s figures were still nearly 10 points lower than in July last year.
Business confidence dropped to a seven-month low in March, at 89.9 points, deteriorating further to 77.8 in April before hitting a record low of 70.1 in May. The level improved in June to 81.4 and to 82.8 in July.
Confidence was undermined by lower manufacturing output, declines in imports and new vehicle sales, and decreased retail sales and disruptions to construction activity.
The SACCI statement touched on corruption, too, saying it put the country’s post-pandemic recovery at risk.
‘In announcing the Covid-19 relief measures, the president had stated that measures would be put in place to ensure that public finances would not be irregularly spent. This promise has not been fulfilled and raises the issue of credibility.’
It suggested that ‘the time has come for government to pause, reassess and re-evaluate its own cabinet resource capabilities, by enquiring whether some of its cabinet committees have the required level of competence, grit and experience to handle the big tasks’.