It will take a great deal of efforts and resources for the country’s economy to recover from the damage caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic, President Cyril Ramaphosa said this on Freedom Day (Monday).
Ramaphosa said coronavirus was going to set back by many years the country’s efforts to fight poverty, unemployment, weak economy and underdevelopment.
“Even as we turn the tide on the coronavirus pandemic, we will still have to confront a contracting economy, unemployment, crime and corruption, a weakened state and other pressing concerns,” he said.
“We will have to find new, exceptional and innovative ways to overcome them,” he added.
Ramaphosa also noted that while many South Africans were enduring the lockdown in comfortable homes, with their kids able to access online learning, millions of families were battling to survive as their breadwinners were unable to make a living.
“This Freedom Day, we find ourselves engaged in a struggle that has thrown into sharp focus the poverty and inequality that still define our society.”
Ramaphosa said the social relief measures he announced last week – including the increase in social grants and a R350 grant for the unemployed – were aimed at supporting the vulnerable in society.
The president called on government, labour, civil society and business, to work together in building a new economy for South Africa going forward, in the same way the institutions were fighting the virus.
