1. General COVID-19 information
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the entire globe, hitting the South African shores around February 2020, with the first positive case to be recorded – this was the beginning of many more cases to follow.
South Africa has had the most cases of COVID 19 on the Continent. Currently the numbers stand at 1 843 572 cases - as at 22 June 2021.
South Africa has experienced two variants namely: the BETA and DELTA variants, responsible for the surge in numbers in the current 3rd wave.
South Africa has entered the 3rd wave of COVID-19, with Gauteng leading with increasing numbers. Gauteng is bordered by four provinces; the Free State, North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, and the movement of people, inter-provincial traveling have largely contributed to the spread of the virus in these areas.
Indications are that the virus is spreading faster than before and calls for stricter measures were made, in an effort to protect the citizens and their livelihoods – thus the imposition of a nation-wide lockdown and other restrictions.
In an effort to control the spread of the virus, the President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency, Cyril Ramaphosa, established a National Coronavirus Command Council, comprising of Cabinet Ministers, to co-ordinate all aspects of South Africa’s extraordinary emergency response to the pandemic.
As mentioned, measures were imposed to limit the spread of the virus. A nation-wide lockdown consisting of various alert levels (ranging from level 1 to 5) has been imposed
– the country is currently on alert level 3.
Health Protocols as announced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) such as the washing and sanitising of hands, social distancing and the wearing of face masks are being impressed upon in the country. The non-wearing of a face mask in public places has been made a criminal offence.
Restrictions pertaining to commercial activities, social and religious gatherings have been imposed.
There was an increase in the number of health facilities via the conversion of certain areas into isolation centres to deal with COVID-19 cases.
There was an increase to the social grants given to the elderly, the disabled, children and foster parents. Furthermore, a new temporary grant was introduced to cover unemployed people and those who lost their source of income during the pandemic.
Efforts were made to protect the homeless and remove them from the streets.
Whilst lockdown had the advantage of slowing down infections, it had serious social economic challenges like increased Gender-Based Violence, job losses and negatively impacted on livelihoods, with some companies scaling down on employees and operations and others closing down altogether.
PPE related corruption posed and continues to pose a challenge to successful measures to contain and protect citizens – particularly public servants against COVID- 19.
3. COVID-19 cases: South Africa in comparison to other countries on the continent
South Africa has the most numbers in respect of Coronavirus cases on the Continent.
Angola and Namibia are experiencing a resurgence amongst health workers.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing a surge in numbers and Kinshasa has become the epicentre of the virus in that country.
Generally, the Coronavirus spread is increasing and requires collaborative and concerted efforts from all partners in government, business and civil society to control the spread before it goes out of control due to limited resources available on the Continent.
As the focus on vaccination intensifies, world leaders and public representatives need to ensure that enough vaccines are procured for the citizens, achieving “population immunity” and resulting in the management of the virus.
4. COVID-19 and its effects on the public service
The public service was not spared from the wrath of COVID-19 and the overwhelming tragic consequences cannot be downplayed.
For example, data collected from reports of national and provincial departments shows that 106 574 (across provinces) and 44 960 (nationally) public servants tested positive for COVID-19 since the dreadful pandemic reared its ugly head in the country, leaving 2756 in provinces and 888 nationally, public servants dead.
Most affected public servants were in health, education, police, and correctional sectors. The reports evidenced that the education sector at both national and provincial level, has more numbers of infections.
Associated with COVID-19 are the compulsory isolation period in positive confirmed cases and quarantine in suspected cases, which easily disrupt service delivery in the public service.
In terms of the legal prescripts which govern public service in South Africa, the Minister for the Public Service and Administration is responsible for establishing norms and standard relating to among others:
- Health and wellness of employees;
- Information management in the public service;
- Electronic government; and
- Transformation, reform, innovation and any other matter to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the public service and its service delivery to the public.
- The Minister gives effect to these by making regulations, determinations and directives.
Some of the practical measures that were put in place to protect public servants:
The issuing of circulars for:
- Business continuity - Support business continuity and service operations towards a full return to normal operations whilst managing the prescribed employment contractual obligations, between the employer and employee in each workplace within the public service.
- Guidance to Accounting Officers - Guide HODs in the public service on the decongestion of workplaces through limiting the number of employees physically on- site as part of measures to comply with regulations to mitigate the effect of the resurgence of COVID 19.
- Health protocols – For Accounting Officers to ensure that administrative measures are availed and put in place in each department, using relevant applicable legal instruments to hold all government officials accountable for service delivery and lawful administrative practices whilst ensuring that they adhere to health protocols.
- Return to work – To prepare public service workplaces for a phased –in approach for return to work after lockdown.
- Employment practices- Manage related employment practices during the lockdown period.
- Remote working arrangements – To ensure that the machinery of Government continues to function, even with public servants operating remotely.
Strong health and wellness programmes in all government departments
The wellbeing of public servants was affected – psychologically and emotionally by a number of Covid-19 related factors, such as being diagnosed with COVID-19, caring for and nursing infected family members; the passing away of family members and colleagues; employees going on quarantine and isolation, as well as being hospitalized without having visitors in the hospital; being unable to pay their last respects to passing colleagues and some family members due to COVID-19 restriction guidelines and poor work performance. The Employee Health and Wellness (EHW) programme was extended to offer support to public servants. The EHW programme continues to play a vital role in terms of providing psychosocial interventions to infected and affected employees and their dependents during and post COVID-19 era.
6. Lessons learnt
- Measures put in place did not necessarily deter the spread of COVID-19 in the country. South Africa has reached the 3rd wave and it is feared and predicted that the damages might supersede the previous two waves.
- Attitudes of individuals/people/citizens towards COVID-19 protocols of waering facemasks, social distancing, washing hands and sanitising are important.
- Partnerships are key. For example, the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) is one of the key partners in the fight against COVID-19 in the public service and they continue to daily monitor their members for COVID-19.
- Reaching ‘population immunity’ is vital and vaccinations are key towards achieving this goal. All efforts must be rallied to speed up and ensure that as many people as possible are vaccinated to reach the government target of 67% by the end of 2021.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the State will persist and be felt for a long time. To this end, reforms are needed to ensure that the public service adapts to improve the rendering of public service. In particular, it has been shown that there is a need for improved co- ordination across all departments in the public service and to avoid a silo and fragmented approach in the public service.
It is important that the State does not lose sight of the fact that healthcare is linked to good governance, economic development, social issues and environmental factors. The integrated approach in public health is called a ‘syndemic framework’ as it considers all factors mentioned prior when addressing a pandemic like COVID-19.
Many African governments and public service stakeholders used this method in responses to the pandemic such as the Ebola virus. It would serve the South African public service and respective stakeholders well in the health sector to also adopt this method and avoid poor coordination in public service provision.
