The third wave is here, the numbers are frightening, and the RIP messages do not end.
South Africa is in a dark place right now and for once, it's not Eskom. There’s that special gathering over at Nkandla, our deputy president is in Russia seeking medical help (let’s just assume it’s because our hospitals are full and not because he doesn’t trust them), the pandemic is raging, and businesses are shutting down every day.
People are hungry and it is becoming a pandemic on its own.
Thinking about this has made me wonder how the people who greedily ran through the Covid-19 relief funds feel right now. The ones who plundered through millions of rands in their quest to become overnight millionaires.
Read more | Dear Mr President, vaccinate me please
Do they feel guilty when they see their country coming apart at the seams? When they see a small business owner begging the president to let them operate as only R1000 stands between them and poverty?
When they see previously employed waiters and waitresses flocking to internet cafés in the hopes that someone will hire them again?
When they look at the line of unemployed men and women who stand in the streets looking for work growing longer and longer?
Are they even bothered while sitting in their plush homes with fancy décor and all the booze they could drink?
Do they know that their favourite musician is right now looking around their house thinking about what to sell next to make rent or car payments?
Are they too insulated up in their estates hidden from the view of the poor as they go for a round of golf to deal with the boredom of level 4?
Are they haunted by the dead who could have been saved, if only there was enough access to PPEs and oxygen and the vaccine?
I want to know, do they even care? I hope they don’t sleep at night. I hope instead of counting sheep while trying to sleep, they see the faces of the dead. I hope they hear the cries of children as they lay their parents to rest, or the pleas of the elderly who can’t handle the hunger pangs anymore.
I hope they find no rest, even in their plush beds and blackout curtains.
Read more | Why Noxolo Maqashalala's death changed my life
I’m not normally a mean person, but I think my coronavirus anxiety is getting to me again. So why should I suffer alone?
Speaking of Covid-19 anxiety, I’ve learnt a new thing recently – vaccine envy.
I feel it every time I catch a glimpse of a Euro match, where thousands of fans are gathered to cheer their teams, just enjoying themselves.
I get a twinge when I see my favourite international celebrities out and about on holiday with their friends and families, and no social distancing in sight.
When a friend who is in some city overseas tells me that life is essentially back to normal in their area, I want that normal too.
And for all these places it’s not like Covid-19 has completely disappeared. Quite the contrary. Some are still getting cases by the thousands. But their death numbers? I saw a report recently about 21 000 cases and ONE death.
Because they are vaccinated. They have a fighting chance.
And I’m sure I’m not the only one with vaccine envy. We want to be vaccinated. We long to be vaccinated. We are begging to be vaccinated. Just imagine people begging to be poked with needles.
We want a fighting chance as we watch our friends, families, favourite celebs battle this monster.
We want to live.
