Richard Calland: Ramaphosa has done well on Covid-19; Cabinet has weak links

Richard Calland is a legal and political expert, with a special focus on South Africa. In this interview with BizNews founder Alec Hogg, Calland – who was a barrister in London before changing career focus – shares his score-card on how President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Cabinet have dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic. He highlights that Covid-19 is putting the spotlight on structural inequalities between the private and state healthcare systems and he gives his carefully considered view on the anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol rules and related court cases. Calland notes that saving lives and minimising damage to the economy has been an extremely difficult balancing act. – Editor

Richard Calland is well known in South Africa as the author of three books. He's an associate professor at UCT and also runs the Paternoster Group, which advises some big corporations on exactly what's going on in our country. No doubt Richard, you've been following everything closely for the past four months. The hot debate right now is: did the lockdown actually work or did it have to go for as long as it has?

We're answering that question or attempting to answer that, or at least with the partial benefit of hindsight. In due course, with even more hindsight, we'll probably get a clearer picture.

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