Now it’s health minister Zweli Mkhize, following the lead of trade & industry minister Ebrahim Patel, bemoaning how “unfair” it is that doctors who are part of his own advisory panel have slammed the phased lockdown as “unscientific”.

Mkhize’s comments came as the government’s lockdown edifice, already weakened by a series of senseless rules, began to seriously crumble over the weekend. At the same time, the number of new infections rose by a record 1,160 on Sunday to reach 15,515...