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IS PARTIAL LOCKDOWN ENDING TODAY?

15/04/2020 01:13:00 BY SIBONGILE SUKATI

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MBABANE – It’s a period of uncertainty as emaSwati wait with bated breath to know whether or not things will go back to normal tomorrow.
This is because today is when the announced 20-day partial lockdown period is expected to end according to the Prime Minister (PM), Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini.

The public is unhappy with government’s ‘silence’ on the next move regarding the partial lockdown.
By 7pm yesterday, there was no indication from government on whether the partial lockdown would end or be extended just like in neighbouring South Africa.
South Africa extended its lockdown by two weeks.

Reports were to the effect that by 6pm yesterday evening, Cabinet was still in a meeting at Hospital Hill. The newsroom was yesterday inundated with calls from anxious citizens including non-essential civil servants, who wanted to know if they should return to work following the order that they should work from home by the Minister of Public Service, Christian Ntshangase.

Conference

Last week Thursday during a press conference, the PM, said the partial lockdown would continue as announced for the duration of 20 days.
“Any review will be communicated to the public after the relevant consultations,” said Dlamini when the country was on day 14. However, the uncertainty is not going down well with members of the public who believe that government should inform them in time on what the next move is.

“I went to the rural areas when government announced that non-essential service civil servants should work from home and I therefore need to know if I should be on a bus back to my workstation tomorrow (today),” said one civil servant who works as an accountant. The locals stated that at least in South Africa, the president had made the announcement to extend the lockdown for 14 days, a week before it was supposed to end.
“This gives them time to prepare mentally for the extra two weeks,” she said. They questioned why government was not coming forth to state its position so that every one would start preparing.

“I don’t understand how our government operates? Why are they quiet on such an important issue? What are they meeting about if they can’t make decisions, this is very stressful. As it is, we are not sure on our next move,” said another citizen.
Meanwhile, Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini said it would be in government’s interest to extend the partial lockdown.

He said the government could not just come out of the blue to state that the lockdown was over, especially because the country was not in a position to confidently state that the coronavirus had been confined. He said this was because a majority of the citizens had not been tested.

“The statistics reflect that we have not even tested about 1 000 people yet we have a population of 1 million,” said Dlamini. He said he was of the view that government needed to test at least 500 000 people before the right direction could be taken. Dlamini added that as teachers they also needed time to readjust the school calendar and time-table. He also said there was a need to also disinfect schools around the country.

Cases

Meanwhile, the latest four positive cases reported by the Ministry of Health indicated that all of them had no history of travel and therefore it was clear that the coronavirus was now in-house.

Another liSwati who preferred to be identified as E.G.D stated that in his opinion, there was a possibility of regressing if Eswatini did not maintain the lockdown. He said the present statistics were not conclusive to convince that the pandemic was under control because there had been no full testing.
“A total of 770/1.3 million is very little to gain any level of confidence,” he said.

He stated that if government succumbed, it would be because of pressure as it cannot afford to compensate traders. He added that, however, opening businesses without South Africa on board would be simply futile.