Economic damage and job losses a greater threat to SA than Covid-19

As the world gets worked up over the reported surge in coronavirus cases, I’m reminded of a quote by economist Thomas Sowell. It goes something like this: “One of the first things learnt in any introductory course on statistics is that correlation is not the same as causation. Unfortunately, that word of caution is also one of the first things forgotten.”

This observation is worth remembering as almost everyone has jumped on the bandwagon that lifting lockdowns has caused the surge in coronavirus cases. In SA, health minister Zweli Mkhize seems to have bought in to this assumption as he has hinted that returning to a level 5 lockdown might be on the horizon...