Exploring the Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Social, Cultural, Economic, and Psychological Insights and Perspectives

Usha Rana, Jayanathan Govender, Usha Rana, Jayanathan Govender

• Publisher: Apple Academic Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000564945
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

This unique and topical book assesses the impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on a multitude of different aspects of human life. With chapters from researchers from a diverse selection of countries, this new volume, Exploring the Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Social, Cultural, Economic, and Psychological Insights and Perspectives, provides an insightful understanding of the challenges and impacts of COVID-19 on mental health, health care, gender issues, education, social institutions, and more.

The diverse studies in this volume look at community responses and social challenges during COVID-19, covering topics such as social protection challenges and measures, the responsibility of the state to its citizens, and human rights and inhuman wrongs. The volume also examines health challenges and consequences of COVID-19, such as the impact on maternal and reproductive health, on mental health, the psychological effects of isolation, and more. The volume also includes studies on gender issues such as the plight of women migrant workers during the pandemic, feminist activism during quarantine, the impact on vulnerable groups of society, and how the pandemic affected interpersonal relations and behavior.

The volume also takes a look at the roles of different organizations and professions and their reactions to the health crisis, including police, journalists and the media, and educators. The issues of the closure of schools and colleges and remote learning are also addressed. There is even a mathematical study of optimum budget allocation for social projects to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

The enlightening volume provides an in-depth understanding of sociocultural responses to the COVID-19 and its consequences on society and will be of value to many sectors of society, including government and nongovernment organizations, policymakers and policy analysts, medical research organizations, schools and universities, healthcare practitioners, sociologists, and many others.

PART I Community Responses and Social Challenges During COVID-19

CHAPTER 1 ‘Confronting the Monster’: Exploring the Implementation of Social Protection Measures Amid COVID-19 in South Africa

BEAUTY ZINDI¹ and ELVIN SHAVA²

¹ Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Commerce, University of Fort Hare, South Africa

² School of Public Management, Governance, and Public Policy, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered severe social and economic effects in South Africa, resulting in many people losing their jobs. This had a negative bearing on household income. Accompanied by long-existing social-economic disparities in South Africa, COVID-19 has adversely affected impoverished South African households that rely on government social protection programs to sustain their livelihoods. In response to the unanticipated effects of COVID-19, the government of South Africa quickly implemented social protection measures, including COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant, Social Support Grants, the National Disaster Benefit, and the COVID-19 Temporary Relief Scheme, compensation fund, and the unemployment insurance fund (UIF). These measures were aimed at lessening the burden of the pandemic on poor households in both urban and rural communities. Utilizing a constructivist paradigm that adopts a qualitative approach, the chapter uses document analysis to explore the implementation of social protection measures during COVID-19 in South Africa. The chapter further assesses the challenges faced by the government of South Africa in rendering relief aid as a response to the effects of COVID 19. The findings of the chapter revealed that the distribution of COVID-19 aid was characterized by corruption. Lack of capacity among local municipalities was also noted; these struggled to deal with homeless people. Alleviating household poverty was also a challenge experienced by the government, as the money and food hampers were not enough to support the many hungry families. We conclude that apart from government support, stakeholder intervention was required to assist struggling families and unemployed people, as COVID-19 has uprooted the livelihoods of many citizens. We recommend that the government of South Africa should increase its role as a welfare provider as well as collaborate with stakeholders towards easing the brunt of COVID-19 in communities.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic has so far infected over 14 million people and triggered over 600,000 fatalities globally. It has proved to be one of the major challenges of the 21^st century; hence, it has been declared a global pandemic so that countries globally can adopt measures to mitigate its spread [1]. Several countries were caught unaware, and therefore struggled to withstand the shocks triggered by this pandemic on the economies, social, and political lives of the people. Most research conducted ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 indicates that the pandemic is already wreaking havoc by disrupting social and economic functions and subjecting people to lives of misery and poverty [2]. Experts have indicated that although COVID-19 infections are indiscriminate, there are some profound and significant demographic variations in its impacts [3]. The burdens triggered by the pandemic created devastation among poor individuals and communities. To contain the effects of this pandemic, some governments, including South Africa, implemented some drastic social and economic strategies to slow the spread of the pandemic [4].

In South Africa, which is one of the countries affected the worst by this global pandemic, early actions that range from large economic stimulus packages and the lowering of interest rates have been initiated as social safety nets for millions of their citizens [5]. Apart from socio-economic measures taken by many countries globally, lockdown restrictions were imposed to minimize the spread of the virus, which resulted in people staying at home [6]. This chapter responds to the following questions:

Which social protection measures did the South African government implement to assist citizens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?

What are the challenges faced by the South African government in offering relief support to citizens who fell victim to COVID-19 pandemic?

This chapter is structured as follows. After the introduction, the first section offers an overview of the COVID-19 situation in South Africa. The second describes the theoretical and empirical perspectives guiding the chapter, and this is followed by a section on the social protection measures undertaken by the government of South Africa in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 4^th section discusses the role of the local government amid COVID-19 in South Africa. The 5^th section focuses on presentation, analysis, and discussion of findings. The last section concludes and offers recommendations, including direction for further research for the South African government to respond to the effects of COVID-19 effectively.

1.2 OVERVIEW OF THE COVID-19 SITUATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa is currently facing huge challenges in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic that is spreading very fast with various levels of fatalities across the globe [7]. The virus, which started in Wuhan, China in late 2019, has become a worldwide epidemic within a very short time [1]. Countries such as Italy, Spain, United Kingdom (UK), France, and the United States were severely attacked in terms of infections and deaths regardless of their highly improved and well-equipped health service systems [9]. This has raised great concern for the African continent, which has relatively weak health systems compared to Europe and the Global North, and for the wide expanse of areas on the continent with no health services or health systems in place [10]. While Africa is among the regions that were affected last by the virus, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Egypt on February 14, 2020, and more than 34,000 cases were confirmed by the end of April [11].

South Africa announced its first case of COVID-19 on March 5 in 2020, and currently has one of the highest confirmed cases on the African continent. Available data shows that as of 15 September 2020, South Africa had recorded 650,749 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 579,289 had recovered while 15,499 had died of the pandemic [12]. Global data also reveals that in terms of infections, South Africa is now ranked 5^th among the COVID-19 worst affected countries [1]. However, based on mathematical models that help to predict the trends of the pandemic, experts have noted that South Africa has now reached the zenith of the pandemic [14]. Indications are that, increasingly, health care institutions are becoming overwhelmed and unable to cope with treatment and care demands of the pandemic [14]. For Wadvalla [16], the pandemic is indiscriminately affecting all provinces in South Africa, with Gauteng and Western Cape provinces becoming the dual epicenters of the pandemic in the country. In anticipation of a spiraling COVID-19 death toll, authorities in Gauteng and Western Cape provinces have reportedly prepared more than 1 million graves [17]. Although this has attracted criticism from the public, media, and other social analysts, the move was strategic in preparing for the inevitable as the COVID-19 pandemic was ravaging citizens, especially those already suffering from chronic diseases.

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government of South Africa outlined and implemented several strategies designed to slow the spread of the pandemic [2]. Among the range of COVID-19 control strategies adopted by South Africa is the imposition of a national lock-down, social distancing, self-isolation/quarantine, practicing self-hygiene, massive testing and treating of the infected as well as cultivating awareness through education and communication programs [10, 17]. Inopportunely, the implementation of these strategies is reportedly accompanied by severe and multifaceted social and economic impacts that are negatively impacting on livelihoods [10]. In many instances, poor people who cannot readily withstand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are in many ways the major reason why the COVID-19 containment strategies are being implemented [2].

While the implementation of the above-mentioned COVID-19 containment and prevention strategies have immensely helped to slow down the spread of the pandemic [23], indications are that these strategies have exposed serious gaps in the country’s social protection system. Measures such as social distancing have been noted to be impractical in densely populated communities in which people share basic resources such as water sources, bathrooms, toilets, and public transport [24]. Furthermore, the mandatory national lockdown has been noted to expose people to serious and deepening poverty [24]. Of great concern is that under conditions of a national lockdown, many people involved in the informal sector, including vendors, self-employed, and contract workers, found themselves without incomes and thus unable to afford basic goods and services [26]. As a result, observing, and practicing high levels of hygiene becomes unrealistic due to inefficient and erratic service delivery by local authorities regards the provision of clean water and refuse collection [23].

1.3 THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL PERSPECTIVES

The chapter draws from the principal-agent theory, which is commonly used in public administration to explain various problems related to management and administration. The theory was propounded in the 1970s by Ross and Mitnick, and it focuses on contractual relationships between principal and agents [28]. It specifies that one person or entity can arrive at making and taking decisions that will affect another person. According to this theory, the principal has the authority to give instructions and responsibilities to the principal [29]. As research indicates [30], an agent carries his or her work as a steward of the principal and works towards accomplishing the set goals. Relating to the study, principal refers to the government while agents are government arms such as the Department of Social Development and local municipalities that execute government programs and offer social protection assistance such as food hampers and social and relief grants to the communities on behalf of the government. The principal assigns duties and responsibilities to agents to execute, and it is in the best interest of agents to accomplish the objectives set by the principal (government) by providing relief support during stressful times such as the COVID-19 pandemic [31]. The theory emphasizes that the principal (government) and agent (municipalities) should work collectively towards providing basic services to the citizens effectively and efficiently.

This theory is very crucial in this chapter as it encourages collectiveness and interdependence of the national, provincial, and local governments in the distribution of relief and social protection assistance amid COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. However, the principal-agent assumptions are made difficult if any of several following conditions exist goal incongruity, uncertainty, information asymmetry, agent risk and interdependence [32]. Therefore, provision of social protection assistance during COVID-19 demands collaborative and mutual understating between the government and implementing agencies, which is essential to minimize corruption and diversion of relief support to struggling communities.

1.4 SOCIAL PROTECTION MEASURES IMPLEMENTED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT

Social protection can generally be understood as constituting various policies and programs designed to reduce the impact of poverty and vulnerability through increasing people’s accessibility and participation in the labor market, diminishing their exposure to risks and building their capacities to withstand economic and social volatilities [33]. According to Jha and Acharya [34], the concept of social protection is premised on the view that there are certain situations that elevate people’s vulnerability to social and economic injustices. Among other factors [35] singled out old age, unemployment, exclusion, sickness, and disability as key factors responsible for creating and sustaining social and economic inequalities and exacerbating people’s vulnerability to poverty and other undesirable social and economic ills. In lieu of these vulnerabilities, governments design and implement various social protection measures to protect people against adverse social and economic outcomes [33]. Given the foregoing analysis, in this chapter, social protection measures can be construed as the various strategies employed by a government or entity of government designed to protect citizens against both anticipated and unanticipated social and economic shocks and or disruptions.

Indications are that social protection measures are important not only because of their ability to protect individuals and families against poverty and its attendant impacts, but they also provide requisite stimulation for economic growth and enhancing social solidarity and stability [35]. As research indicates [38], sustainable social protection measures are crucial as they relay the message that the authorities care about citizens or residents. Recent research revealed that social protection is increasingly becoming an important and indispensable component of good governance [34, 39]. The...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I: Community Responses and Social Challenges During COVID-19
• Part II: Health Challenges and Consequences of COVID-19
• Part III: Impacts of COVID-19 on Age, Gender, and Profession
• Part IV: Role of Different Organizations and Professions
• Part V: Closure of Schools and Colleges During COVID-19: Remote Learning Challenges
• Index