EDITORIAL: Some ministers have common sense, others racial sense

American inventor Thomas Edison once said: “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” Wise words South Africans would do well to take to heart as we brace for the Covid-19 lockdown and the economic and social consequences that will surely follow.

There will also inevitably be unintended negative consequences, some of which are already revealing themselves. The domestic economy is already taking a battering, which was clearly not the intention but was predictable nevertheless. The goal should be to minimise the damage while achieving the chief goal of “flattening the curve” of infection and thereby saving lives.

Dealing with such eventualities is going to take a degree of official flexibility that has not been a defining feature of the government in recent times, but this administration — galvanised by crisis and benefiting from unprecedented support from opposition parties, business, labour and civil society — has shown signs of surprising us all.

Everything may seem to be in a state of suspended animation right now, but life will go on. This too shall pass, and when it does there will be a lot of hard work to do. Edison’s “stick-to-itiveness” — a synonym for determination — will be more necessary than ever, as will common sense. Unfortunately, the latter, as French philosopher François-Marie Arouet famously noted, is not so common.

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