Most of us will remember 26 March 2020 — the start of our national Covid-19 lockdown — for the rest of our lives. But for me, there is another day which will forever stand above all others. It’s the very next day, after that Thursday announcement when the first person in our province died as a result of the virus.  

Having one of our own die to this scourge made this all too real, and, as we know, it had only just begun. By the time Covid-19 was eventually declared behind us from a regulatory point of view, over 800 days later on 23 June this year, we had lost 22,240 people to the disease in our province alone.  

I think of these people often — the ones we lost — and mourn them. I think of their families, who are still grieving the pain of a contactless goodbye. Their pain brings me pain.  

But they are not the only people I think of when I reflect on our province’s Covid-19 journey.  

From its start until this point, the story of our Covid recovery has importantly also been about people: the unsung heroes, the “ordinary” people, the hard-working officials, employees and business owners, from every quarter of South Africa, who pulled together to save the lives of so many, and our economy too.  

It is time now to celebrate their achievements, to mark them down, so that we don’t allow ourselves to ever forget what we together are capable of; what we can achieve if we have the energy and focus to do so.  

From the Western Cape Government, I think first of our Health Department which formed the frontline of our response. This team cared for tens of thousands of additional patients who came through their doors in the worst two years of the pandemic. To see to these extra numbers, they partnered with our Public Works Department and built an 862-bed, fully equipped hospital in six weeks.

They changed our outcomes picture with new treatment methods in dexamethasone and high-flow nasal oxygen. They partnered with Uber to deliver chronic medication directly to patients at home. They equipped businesses with Covid-19 intelligence through their award-winning dashboard. 

And they ran the biggest vaccination programme this province has ever rolled out, administering 3.75 million vaccines in its first six months alone. They sat outside malls answering questions from residents who weren’t sure about vaccines.

These are the stories you know. The stories I will cherish forever are those about the nurse who shared her airtime, going bed to bed, to give very ill patients a telephonic lifeline to their loved ones.

I’ll remember the thunderous roar of applause as long-term Covid-19 patients finally left our care, brightening up what were otherwise dark days. These professionals deserve our recognition.  

I think of our Social Development Department officials, who, in the first six months of the pandemic, distributed 55,977 food parcels to 224,000 beneficiaries. They provided old-age homes with 120,000 face masks. They worked rapidly to establish detailed guidelines for managing Covid-19 at care facilities, with specialised training provided to carers, providing certainty to their sector.

An additional 30 new GBV social workers were deployed to hotspot areas to assist women in need in the evenings and on the weekends in recognition of the fact that lockdowns may be exacerbating harmful situations.  

I think of our Education Department officials. When the lockdown was declared, this team took immediate steps to ensure that our learners would be able to continue learning. They launched the Quality Learning @Home campaign which provided learners with excellent learning material that they could use from home, including a virtual library.

Despite opposition, they provided food to vulnerable learners during the lockdown, serving 1.2 million meals between 6 April and 12 May 2020 — a decision later confirmed to be the right one by the North Gauteng high court. They lobbied for the safe reopening of schools after the hard lockdown, and for a return to full attendance at the start of 2022, so that we could get our children back on track to secure their future opportunities.  

I think of our Transport and Public Works Department staff who pioneered the Red Dot and Red Dot Lite Services, in partnership with our taxi industry, providing safe evening transport for public sector healthcare workers during a hard lockdown and beyond. During the first eight months of the pandemic, we completed 173,000 passenger trips for healthcare workers from 25 healthcare facilities in the Metro. The service also transported 3,500 discharged patients from hospitals. 

I think of our Economic Development and Tourism Department officials who developed and distributed 11,000 business safety kits to enable SMMEs in all 30 municipalities to operate safely. This team established a Covid-19 Business Relief Fund which assisted 249 businesses that were negatively impacted by the pandemic to get through a time of severe hardship. Over R38-million was provided through this fund.

Through the Community Economic Recovery Programme, we supported 122 spaza shops in hotspot areas. And in a bid to restart our tourism sector, this team, with their Wesgro colleagues, launched the “We Are Open” campaign to encourage the return of travellers which would help to save jobs.  

I think of our legal team which provided advice and guidance on the interpretation of the many regulations and directions issued under the Disaster Management Act, and the many public FAQs they developed so that we all had clarity during a time of turmoil.  

I think of our communications team which worked 24/7 to roll out an impactful, wide-scale Covid–19 safety awareness campaign, the biggest communications campaign this province has ever undertaken, to ensure that we could start to go about our business as soon as possible while keeping one another safe. They ran our digicons and issued updates every day of the week, so that everyone was armed with the knowledge they needed to stay safe. 

I think of our Contact Centre staff, which launched our Coronavirus Provincial Hotline within days of our first case. These team members dealt with immense volumes of calls, logging 109,117 calls on food parcels alone between 1 April 2020 and 4 May 2020, 59,241 calls on social relief of distress between 1 April and 6 July 2020, 408,723 calls on Covid-19 contact tracing and Q&I between 13 June 2020 and 30 June 2022, and 26,484 calls on vaccine rollout support between 18 February 2021 and 30 June 2022.

I think of our world-class disaster management team, which coordinated the repatriation of foreign passengers who were stuck here when our country went into lockdown at short notice.  

To all these Western Cape Government team members, and all the others that played a role too, from each and every department — your efforts, your energy, and your unwavering commitment to finding solutions, day in and day out, helped to save lives and livelihoods in our province. You embody the spirit of public service and our chosen culture of being citizen-obsessed. 

These are just some of our stories. I know there are stories just like this — of people who did big and small things to help — across our province, in every sector, home and business.  

While I am very grateful to be saying goodbye to the worst of Covid-19, I am taking an important lesson with me: when we work together, not just in government but across the province, with solidarity of purpose, we can achieve great things.  

Our question must be: what is next?  

My wish is to see this same level of energy harnessed to fight poverty and crime. From the Western Cape Government, that is now our primary mission, and I know it’s a mission we share with many other stakeholders already.

But to make a big and lasting impact, we all need to play a role, even if it’s in a small way, and I hope each and every resident will join us in the same way they joined in the fight against Covid-19, and become part of this next story. DM