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= The impact of covid19 in Lebowakgomo = What is covid19?

Covid19 virus is an infectious disease that is part of the corona virus family. The Covid19 virus is from a large family of viruses with the some causing less severe disease. Most common symptoms of covid19 are mainly cough, fever, sore throat and shortness of breath. The covid19 virus is spread through droplets of saliva or discharge from mouth and the nose of when a person that infected coughs or sneezes. It is important that when an infected person sneezes or cough to always cover their mouth and nose so that they do not disperse possible infectious droplets. That’s why it’s highly recommended that people wear masks when in public, practice social distancing, practice respiratory etiquette and wash their hands regularly with soap and water and use hand sanitizers with alcohol level of 75%. These are some of the best ways to prevent or protect oneself from covid19.

In early March 2020 South Africa announced its first positive case of covid19. By mid-March 2020 the number of covid19 cases had risen to 61. The spread of the virus was gradually growing, and the government of South Africa was quick to act to carb the virus from spreading further. On the 15th March 2020 the president of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster and on the 23rd March 2020 the president announced a 21-day national lockdown which would start on the 26th March 2020. South Africa has since being in lockdown with the government gradually relaxing the rules during the different levels. South Africa is currently on lockdown level 2.

What is a lockdown?

A lockdown is a state whereby new laws are implemented to restrict movement within the country meaning no travel within provinces and inter provincial travel, restrictions of economic activity to name a few. There were new laws that were put in place to restrict move of people. With the lockdown implemented this meant that all non-essential services and places such as restaurants, shopping malls, spaza shops, public transport, street vendors and corporate businesses were closed. No sports activities, no church gathering, no family gatherings all these were prohibited and was a measure to introduce social distancing as this helps to carb the virus. South Africa came to a standstill from the 26 March 2020. The only people or businesses that were allowed to operate are those that were identified was essential people or essential business. People that were classified as essential were people in the medical field, petrol attendants, large chain food stores (i.e. Shoprite, Pick and Pay, pharmacies to name a few) After the 21 days of lockdown, the president of south Africa relaxed the lockdown restrictions and lockdown to level 4. As the restrictions of the lockdown The NEGATIVE Impact of COVID19 in the Lebowakgomo.

Covid19 had an impact on the residents of Lebowakgomo especial in the social, economic health dimensions. Lebowakgomo is conservative township situated 55kms outside of Polokwane in Limpopo. Normally the township starts becomes abuzz at 5 o’clock to start the day, and economic activities start i.e public transport moving to collect commuters that have to travel to work street vendors starting to setup their stalls getting ready to sell their products and different people walking to their destinations. And as the lockdown settle in the 26th March 2020 Lebowakgomo came to a standstill as the resident observed the new lockdown rules to stay home as a means to practise social distancing. The residents of Lebowakgomo complied and everyone that was not an essential worker stayed at home. There was no usual economic movement in Lebowakgomo during the 21-day lockdown until the government eased the public transportation and taxis were given a curfew of when to operate so that essential workers can get to work and back from work. The lockdown had a huge negative impact on the community of Lebowakgomo. The was a huge impact on the residents, businesses and transport.


 * The negative impact of covid19 on the social dimension.

With the residents placed in lockdown, this meant that people must stay at home. And for many people staying at home is difficult as they are already justed to getting on with their daily activities. This could have caused anxiety for some people because during the lockdown you had to stay home, the only time that one could leave the house is when one is an essential worker or when one needed to seek medical help, buy groceries from supermarkets, or medication from pharmacies. There were some people that lost they’re because of the lockdown as the companies or business they were working for were hugely impacted by the lockdown.


 * The negative impact of covid19 on the economic dimension.

Initially when the lock down was imposed every business in Lebowakgomo closed its doors all the spaza shops, the street vendors, no public transport in the township could operate this affected the essential workers that rely on public transport to get to work. This also meant that there was no income for public transport owners and drivers especially the taxi owners and taxi drivers and this led to a lot of distress for the taxi owners and drivers. The minister of transport relaxed the public transport restrictions by allowing taxis to operate in a certain time frame and to allow 70% capacity of the transport in order to comply with the new social distancing rules, this still meant that very income for the taxi owners and drivers as they were restricted to operate in 6am to 9am and again at 4pm to 6pm.

Speaking to one of the taxi owners expressed how he is “struggling to make ends meet as they are not able to fully operate, and these is affecting the how they are paying his driver”. Most street vendor tried to sell their products before the lockdown started. As they knew that if they do not sell, they products before the lockdown, this means they would lose money. Speaking to some street vendors, they all echo the same sentiments that on their financials were hugely affected by the lockdown. This affected their homes because of the little to no income during the lockdown because the fruits and vegetables that were not sold before the lockdown went bad, and they were not selling any fruits and vegetables during the lockdown. The financial loss of this vendor had a huge impact on her because there was no income for most of the lockdown. Until the government started easing the rules of the lockdown and lower the levels of the lockdown were implemented.

The POSITIVE Impact of COVID19 in the Lebowakgomo. Covid19 has caused a lot of disruption and uncertainty among the residents of Lebowakgomo, there is a bit of positivity that can be identified. Covid19 has caused the residents of Lebowakgomo to think of the box, to think of new ways of doing business, a new of doing things, get creative with the use of technology and yet still adhering to the social distancing rules. The lockdown has changed a lot of the traditional business models now turning them to rely on technology to enable them to still operate and make money during the lockdown. Covid19 has also made sure that spaza shops, street vendors and taxi ranks take extra caution to make sure that their places of work are clean and safe of the covid19 virus, there is extra caution because now they frequently have to sanitizer the places of business and taxi ranks. Some of the street vendors in the community have started selling their fruits and vegetables good from their yards, they have made us of whatsapp whereby customers that want to buy fruits and vegetables can place an order and collect their order later. Most entrepreneurs are also using social media to advertise their services and good so they can get orders while under the lockdown. Criminal activity has decreased since south Africa has being on lockdown, this is a positive thing as the resident of Lebowakgomo feel safer.