SPEECH BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT AND SECRETARY-GENERAL
3 June 2021
Speaker, with only about 1 % of our population fully vaccinated our biggest risk right now is pandemic fatigue.
South Africans, like the people of every other country in the world, have endured an unprecedented and unplanned cultural change – imposed upon us in order to save our very existence.
The health protocols have prevented natural human instincts – to connect with other human beings physically and socially.
We may no longer shake hands or hug when we greet.
We must keep our distance from each other.
We must avoid gathering for social events, cultural events, religious events and even to do our jobs.
We must cover half our faces at all times with a mask.
And we clean and sanitise our hands on entering everywhere.
On top of the loss of our cultural and social habits we have seen a decimation of businesses and jobs.
Store fronts boarded up. Favourite restaurants or bars shut down. Business teetering on the brink of insolvency or liquidation.
Family, friends, colleagues unemployed.
We entered our summer season, the season which many industries and businesses were relying on to recoup some of their lost revenue, with another lockdown as the second wave swept across our country.
Fatigue and complacency played a major role in the magnitude and severity of the second wave.
The third wave is looming. We are under slightly adjusted restrictions which allow most businesses to trade.
We must all dig deep and not allow complacency and fatigue to overcome us.
If our third wave is not contained we could face another shut down of our economy and our lives.
The virus is transmitted by our behaviour. As hard as it is to maintain the health protocols and adhere to the lockdown rules we implore the people of the Western Cape to rise to the occasion so that we mitigate the loss of life and the loss of livelihood.