COVID-19 pandemic will set back plans for many years: S African Prez Ramaphosa

The COVID-19 pandemic will set back for many years the government's plans to address poverty, underdevelopment, unemployment and a weak economy, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said in his Freedom Day message on Monday.

Unlike previous years, when it was marked with joyous celebrations across the country to commemorate the day when 26 years ago Nelson Mandela was installed as South Africa's first democratically-elected President, this year people stayed indoors on the public holiday as the country is under lockdown due to the COVID-19.

"This pandemic could set these efforts back by many years. This Freedom Day, we find ourselves engaged in a struggle that has thrown into sharp focus the poverty and inequality that still defines our society. The coronavirus pandemic forces us to confront this reality," Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation.

"With every day that passes, this experience is teaching us much about ourselves, about our society and about our country. We are learning about the limits of our endurance, about our relations with others and about our very nationhood," he said.

Ramaphosa said the true lessons of the COVID-19 crisis will not just be about the necessity of social distancing, proper hand washing and infection control.

"They will also be about whether we have the ability to turn this crisis into an opportunity to invest in a new society, a new consciousness and a new economy. This is the time when we should actively work to build a fair and just country," he said.

"In the South Africa that we all want, no man, woman or child will go hungry, because they will have the means to earn an income, and our social assistance programmes will be matched by efforts to enable communities to grow their own food," the President said.

Ramaphosa said it will take a great deal of effort and resources for societies and South Africa's economy to recover as the challenges it faced before this health emergency remained.

"Even as we turn the tide on the coronavirus pandemic, we will still have to confront a contracting economy, unemployment, crime and corruption, a weakened state and other pressing concerns," he said.

Ramaphosa said the country would have to unite to find new, exceptional and innovative ways to overcome challenges, asserting that the government could not do this alone.

"The collaborative spirit with which government, business, labour and civil society formations have worked to drive the national effort to combat the coronavirus is yet another affirmation of just how far we have come.

"Robust engagement, strong institutions, social compacting and consensus-building are all the fruits of the national democratic project that began in 1994," Ramaphosa said.

He lauded the cooperation of the business community, the labour movement, the NGOs, community bodies, religious communities and individuals working together to combat the virus and its damaging economic and social effects.