Horses bolted, wrong stable doors closed

Mmegi Editor | Friday January 8, 2021 17:18

Indeed, the extension of the curfew limits movement while at the same time allowing a level of economic activity required to sustain livelihoods to some extent. The suspension of alcohol, meanwhile, removes one of the potential “superspreaders” of COVID-19 which is large gatherings of intoxicated people unlikely to be observing health protocols or preventative measures.

On the face of it, limiting movement and eliminating one of the superspreaders could give authorities time to rein in the latest upsurge in cases and allow the strained public health resources time to recover ahead of an eventual relaxation.

However, the effectiveness of these latest measures may not be exactly what authorities believe it is. Firstly, the biggest threat the country is facing at the moment is the strain or mutation coming from SA. It is presently unclear how many cases of the new variant are already in the country, but the Health Minister, Edwin Dikoloti last Sunday told the nation the new danger had been detected.

It is equally unclear whether Botswana’s testing protocols for crossing borders are able to reliably detect the new variant and it is equally doubtful that the local PCR or antigen tests being used for contract and sentinel testing locally are capable of picking up the new variant and mutation.

Meanwhile, our borders are wide open, meaning citizens and residents, returning from holiday-making in SA and other parts of the world, could be coasting over the borders and into the country with the SA variant/mutation, the UK variant or others that our local capacity cannot detect.

As for alcohol, manufacturers, traders and retailers know that January is traditionally a low month for sales and consumption. Annually, alcohol trade peaks around Christmas and New Year, before sliding off dramatically in January.

It is true that incidents of non-compliance by revellers over the festive season were quite worrying but suspending sales thereafter, in a low trade month, appears more retributive than reparative. Even without the suspension, the dams, farms and fields where the few errant revellers were seen on social media over the festive period, would now be abandoned, the lines outside liquor stores non-existent and the weekend “chill sessions” abandoned.

The major ‘victims’ of the suspension are liquor traders and their plus 50,000 workers around the country who were rendered income-less in a swift, brief statement by Dikoloti on Sunday night.

As we have said before, rather than suspending all trade, government could rather ban public consumption and insist on, as well as enforce, off-site consumption. All liquor sales could be limited to home delivery by retailers and traders such as the numerous liquor apps, thus helping both the uptake of retail digitisation and innovation amongst young Batswana in this arena.

COVID-19 is apparently here to stay and it will require innovative thinking beyond the usual go-to responses. One way to achieve this is for government and the Task Force to be either more consultative in their decision-making or be more open about the reasoning behind their decisions.

Today’s thought

“Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way” - Tom Freston