When you have crevices in your systems – whether it be in governance, business or your personal life – stress and trauma turn those into canyons. South Africa’s societal and economic inequality has led to the application of a pastiche Chinese and European Covid-19 lockdown, seeming somewhat inhumane in the eyes of many. This has not been helped by outbreaks of a seemingly puritanical, heavy-handed response to citizens on the lower rung of our economic sector of society. Is it down to citizens or our leaders to tackle these philosophical dilemmas? The brutality of having to choose whether to save lives or to save the economy may soon be on the agenda for global leaders… should they seek to be popular or fiscally prudent? Often trauma forces us to ask questions which we would have preferred to answer at a different time, but leadership is needed when the chips are down, and Covid-19 has placed at the feet of leaders around the globe, a challenge not seen before.
