South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the lockdown alert level for the country will be lowered to level 3 with effect on June 1, which would allow most people to return to work and even to places of worship. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa is just shy of 26,000, the highest of any country on the continent.
Economists say the impact of the pandemic will plunge the country into a protracted recession
Ramaphosa’s decision comes after weeks of pressure from civil society groups and opposition political parties to reopen the economy, which had been subjected to one of the harshest lockdown protocols in Africa. Economists say the impact of the pandemic on South Africa’s economy, along with its quarantine measures, will plunge the country into a protracted recession.
In the final quarter of 2019, South Africa entered a recession as power cuts by the state utility Eskom took a toll on the economy, and public finances were strained by bailouts to struggling state-owned entities.
In its April 2020 World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund projected that South Africa’s GDP would contract by 5.8 percent in 2020, from growth of 0.2% in 2019. The country will require significant international assistance to blunt the worst of the pandemic’s impact. This poses a problem, as South Africa’s recent credit rating downgrade by Moody’s will make it more difficult to access funds.