The government’s natural inclination towards secrecy and control – after a refreshing initial openness over Covid-19 – has been reasserting itself.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation was uninspiring. Looking tired and dispirited, he made only two noteworthy points. The first was that the lockdown would be selectively relaxed by the end of May. The second was that the government had failed to meet expectations. That’s a courageous admission. It’s a pity, then, that Ramaphosa immediately reverted to dissimulating politician mode.
We must presumably accept all this on presidential say-so, because the government’s natural inclination towards secrecy and control – after a refreshing initial openness over Covid-19 – has been reasserting itself. But there is one obvious omission: race. That is a stunning anomaly in a country where every official statistic is based on racial categories.
Withholding information is the government’s default setting. That explains why the government would not release the details of its mathematical modelling of the pandemic.Complex societies work best when lubricated with the best information available.Even with the best of intentions, secrecy can be gravely damaging, including to those it ostensibly is protecting.
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