There is a way to allow all businesses on board the economy without being irresponsible enough to exacerbate the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).
The IRR has proposed what they call a 'trim' down approach as an alternative to the risk-adjusted lockdown approach currently being implemented in South Africa as a measure to curb the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The IRR's Deputy Head of Policy, Hermann Pretorius told The Special Focus: "The 'trim down' approach is not a lockdown approach [and] it's not a phased reopening of the economy, even though it is a balanced and a sensible approach to getting the economy back on its feet." The 'trim down' approach is based on the idea of allowing all businesses to become economically active while taking into account the Covid-19 risk factor to ensure that "we are not irresponsible in creating circumstances where the virus can spread." The proposal suggests that operational capacity be limited while all businesses are allowed to resume operations, rather than differentiating between essential and non-essential goods and services. "We put some limitations on the operational capacity of the entire economy. If your business is very high risk in terms of putting many people in one place at one time and the virus really has an opportunity to spread, then we say you should be allowed to open up again but at a limited operational capacity." Pretorius urged for caution with regards to the risk-adjusted strategy being implemented by the government in dealing with the coronavirus that has plunged many countries into 'lockdown' mode. "While it is encouraging that some of the ideas of the IRR have been taken on board, especially this risk-based approach, we must be very careful. They seem to use the term "risk- based approach' but it's not really a risk-based approach." "The risk based approach that the IRR proposed was very much to do away with the differentiation between essential and non-essential services." Pretorius says that the current approach being implemented by Government makes "the worrying and arbitrary distinction between essential and non-essential things in the economy. If you have a job or a business, to you that is an essential and if it wasn't an essential thing in the broader economy, then your business wouldn't have existed." Under Government's approach, the economy is expected to gradually reopen based on a risk-adjusted strategy, after weeks of a hard lockdown that was imposed in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. "The fact that there's a gradual reopening of the economy does make sense in some way but it hinges on this idea of distinction between essential and non-essential economic activity," said Pretorius. He added: "The trim down approach says all businesses are allowed to operate but to make sure it is responsible." Listen to the full discussion here:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorZahid Jadwat is a South African writer, columnist, podcaster and radio show host. Archives
March 2021
Categories
All
|