The health department added only 350 ventilators to hospitals and 207 critical care beds, ‘making light of the sacrifices forced upon millions of citizens’.South African National Defence Force soldiers walk past the remains of a burning barricade in Turffontein, near Johannesburg, on April 28, 2020, after a protest by residents over food parcels.
Thursday marked day 77 of the nationwide lockdown and a large portion of the economy was allowed to resume when the country moved down to level 3 on 1 June. If this was true, then government disregarded the sacrifices forced on South Africans, said Free Market Foundation researcher Chris Hattingh yesterday.
South Africa had one of the strictest and longest lockdowns in the world and it has had a harsh impact on all citizens, particularly low-income households.