Bitter lessons from Covid-19

IF there is anything that this Covid-19 pandemic has brutally exposed, it is the huge structural inequalities within our Lesotho society. Companies, which were already in distress pre-Covid-19 pandemic, are now on the verge of collapse if they have not collapsed already. Each week, we hear tragic stories of individuals who have been retrenched as companies battle to stay afloat. With each job that is lost, we can count at least five other mouths that will starve. What makes this situation scary is that there seems to be no end in sight to the bloodbath in the jobs market. Sadly, this is happening at a time when the government had promised to help clear what it owed to the private sector. But five months down the line, the government has still not managed to honour its promise to pay, leaving most companies in serious distress. The result is that some companies have been left with no option but to start a painful process of retrenchment. What is clear is that this crisis will be with us for the long haul. The implications of this are quite dire. Yet while this crisis unfolds, we basically appear to have nothing in place as a society to cushion those who will lose their jobs. Once an individual loses his job, he is literally on his own. The social upheaval such a scenario will trigger will be massive. That, to us, is scary. The coalition government headed by Dr Moeketsi Majoro, will need to urgently counter this situation. In fact, if ever there was a time that Basotho needed their government that time is now. We have thousands of Basotho who are now not able to work and raise an income to feed their families, basically through no fault of their own. The plight of private teachers, as highlighted elsewhere in this issue, is a case in point. There are many others who are in similar circumstances. While other countries that have been equally affected by the pandemic are resorting to tapping into their “unemployment benefit fund”, we as Basotho have absolutely nothing to turn to. That to us is scary. Wouldn’t this be the right time to explore the need to set up some kind of National Social Security Scheme for Lesotho? When we hit hard times, such a scheme can easily come to our aid. It can also act as a retirement fund for all Basotho. It has been done in other countries and it can still be done in Lesotho. The truth of the matter is that we cannot continue to rely on the benevolence of donors to get by. We need to start our own initiatives so that we stand on our own. The Covid-19 pandemic is a global crisis whose ramifications will live on long after a cure has been found. No country has been spared from the pandemic. The rich donor countries are currently preoccupied with their own crises and it would therefore be folly to expect them to jump to our aid at this moment. That is why it is urgent that we do something now to help look after our own people. That is perhaps the biggest lesson this pandemic has taught: that countries will first look after their own and only thereafter will they look at the interests of other nations. We have had to learn this bitter lesson.