Cape Town is gearing up for peak tourism season. “I cannot stress how important that is to the Western Cape, the province in which Cape Town sits. Because one of the largest industries here is tourism. There’s no government support to speak of in South Africa … The biggest issues we have had are not Covid. The electricity grid is collapsing in South Africa, we were without electricity on and off for 8 to 10 days, we were without water for 7 days. So, I can assure you Covid has not been on many people’s lips in recent weeks because there are much bigger things happening here,” said Donal O’Neill.
Donal O’Neill is a health and human performance documentary film maker. He spoke to Ivor Cummins on Sunday to give an update on the situation in South Africa.
O’Neill discussed how an economist, two weeks into the pandemic, indicated that based on the data South Africa can expect to see 30,000 excess deaths per year over a 10-year period as a direct result of Covid restrictions: a drop in GDP and an increase in poverty. Recent data showed that in 2020, there was 31,000 excess deaths, not Covid related, in South Africa which confirmed the initial estimate.
Youth unemployment in South Africa is over 70% and general unemployment is above 30%. “So, when the world turns it’s back on South Africa for something we don’t know a great deal about yet, the economic implications are enormous,” O’Neill said, “it’s a humanitarian issue more than anything else …I have learned in the last 18 months one rock solid lesson and that is that Africa is nothing more than a PR [public relations] opportunity for the West.”
Read More: The New Political Variant: Africa Is Nothing More Than A PR Opportunity For the West
