Stuff

    Subscribe to our newsletter

    What's Hot
    Vodacom

    Vodacom launches its ‘Good as New’ refurbished iPhone range

    July 6, 2022
    VS Gaming Weekly

    South African esports gets its own TV show – This is VS Gaming Weekly

    July 6, 2022
    Shanghai

    Shanghai hack sees over 23TB of personal information up for sale

    July 6, 2022
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube SoundCloud
    Trending
    • Vodacom launches its ‘Good as New’ refurbished iPhone range
    • South African esports gets its own TV show – This is VS Gaming Weekly
    • Shanghai hack sees over 23TB of personal information up for sale
    • How Discovery Insure is making people better drivers and saving lives – T2S2
    • Glance is here to absolutely ruin your day. And your lock-screen
    • This is what a 3D-printed lunar base built by autonomous robots might look like
    • Nigeria’s latest lithium find: some key questions answered
    • Asus ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro models announced, will land in SA (eventually)
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Stuff Stuff
    • News
      • App News
      • Business News
      • Camera News
      • Gaming News
      • Headphone News
      • Industry News
      • Internet News
      • Laptops News
      • Motoring News
      • Other Tech News
      • Phone News
      • Tablet News
      • Technology News
      • TV News
      • Wearables News
    • Reviews
      • Camera Reviews
      • Car Reviews
      • Featured Reviews
      • Game Reviews
      • Headphone Reviews
      • Laptop Reviews
      • Other Tech Reviews
      • Phone Reviews
      • Tablet Reviews
      • Wearables Reviews
    • Columns
    • Stuff Guides
    • Podcasts & Videos
      • Videos
      • Stuffed
      • Stuffing Around
      • Tech Byte
      • T2S2
    • Win
    • Subscribe
      • Print
      • Digital
        • Google Play
        • iTunes
        • Download
        • Zinio
    • Stuff Shop
      • Shop Now
      • My Account
      • Downloads
    • Contact Us
      • Get In Touch
      • Advertise
    0 Shopping Cart
    Stuff
    Home » Columns » The government’s irrational opposition to ecommerce is misguided
    Columns

    The government’s irrational opposition to ecommerce is misguided

    Toby ShapshakBy Toby ShapshakMay 9, 2020Updated:October 1, 2021No Comments4 Mins Read
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    As middle-class South Africa emerges from self-isolation, blinking in the sunlight and the harsh reality of this new normal, there seemed a palpable lift in the country’s spirits this week. Perhaps I am projecting because I have been able to go for an early morning walk with my wife and nearly three-year-old son for the last three days. The sense of camaraderie is so 1994, but with facemasks.

    So, this is what level four looks like. Restricted exercise, mandatory face masks (it’s been de rigueur in Asia for over a decade) and takeaways. The early signs of a restarting economy. In the suburbs that is. In the townships, life has been unchanged, only hungrier. And instead of tsotsi’s, it’s the police doing the beatings.

    Nobody can refute the sudden joy of takeaways (our first was Greek, from the glorious Parea in Illovo) but it is the most visible form of the return to work after five weeks of lockdown. If you’re struggling to work out what is different between level five and level four, don’t panic. Nobody does, not even the Cabinet.

    A relieved and wheezing nation, with no fingernails left, clearly heard President Cyril Ramaphosa say smoking would be allowed from May 1st. The stinging contradiction a week later by his beaten opponent for the presidency of the ANC, and therefore the country, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The cooperative governance minister is the last of a bumbling pack of mostly tone-deaf, out-of-touch ministers to fiddle with the lockdown regulations – always, it seems, with no understanding of logic nor common sense.

    Not since the 1920s has a prohibition caused such upset and endless debate. Why did NDZ do it? To humiliate Ramaphosa? To finally succeed in her 20-year plan, as a former health minister, to get people to stop smoking? The Sunday Times posted photographs of Dlamini-Zuma with self-confessed tobacco smuggler Adriano Mazzotti and his associates in 2017. Her sudden about-turn points to this odd relationship with the EFF’s benefactor and reignited spate of allegations and memes. I’d really love to know.

    I’m not a smoker, but I do understand that Sars is losing out on R1,5bn a month on sin taxes, for alcohol and cigarettes. Conversely, I can see the merit in banning alcohol sales, given how much crime, domestic violence, car accidents and other casualties and fatalities it causes. SA has experienced negative crime because of the Covid-19 lockdown, in no small part, the experts say, to the booze blockade and the criminals not being able to roam freely.

    As the arguments rage over what sectors should be allowed to start operating, doesn’t it make sense to let any business that can trade, do so? Seems obvious.

    Not to Cabinet. The ongoing sanction against e-commerce is beyond comprehension, an especial achievement from the holders of our highest office who seem unable to agree on the basics from the beginning.

    A strangely socialist streak runs through the logic that if everyone can’t operate as normal, then nobody can. Why can’t Takealot deliver everything they have in their warehouses? Why can’t Pick ‘n Pay sell everything in the store, if people need it?

    The prevailing argument from government – which I hasten to add still includes a Communist Party, despite the utter discrediting of this social and economic operating system ­– is that nobody should get any special advantage. As usual, government has got it all backwards. Instead of crippling everybody, allow whatever companies can operate to do that. Fire up whatever engines in whatever parts of the economy that we can.

    As usual, government has the wrong end of the stick. How do we get them to listen to logic?

    cigarettes ecommerce featured level 4 lockdown
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Tumblr Email
    Toby Shapshak

      Toby Shapshak is editor-in-chief and publisher of Stuff, a Forbes contributor and a Financial Mail columnist. He has been writing about technology and the internet for 20 years and his TED Global talk on innovation in Africa has over 1,5-million views.He has written about Africa's tech and start-up ecosystem for Forbes, CNN and The Guardian in London. He was named in GQ's top 30 men in media and the Mail & Guardian newspaper's influential young South Africans. He has been featured in the New York Times. GQ said he "has become the most high-profile technology journalist in the country" while the M&G wrote: "Toby Shapshak is all things tech... he reigns supreme as the major talking head for everything and anything tech."

      Related Posts

      learning

      Here’s how much learning South African children lost in the pandemic

      June 6, 2022
      Facebook-Meta

      Buck stops with Zuck

      June 2, 2022
      Elon Musk twitter

      Musk’s Twitter bid on hold

      May 19, 2022

      Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

      In The Mag
      Stuff June-July 2022 Latest Issue

      In This Issue – The Outdoors (June-July 2022) Issue

      By Brett VenterMay 30, 20221

      Once again, we are asking you to check out a new issue of Stuff Magazine.…

      2021 Wish List
      wish list Stuff Wish List 2021

      Stuff Wish List: for the tech impaired

      By Duncan PikeDecember 22, 20210

      Are you from the time before being glued to a smartphone was considered normal? Here’s…

      Wishlist DIY Stuff tech

      Stuff Wish List: for the DIY Diehard

      December 21, 2021
      Wish List Gearhead

      Stuff Wish List: For the petrol-soaked gearhead

      December 20, 2021
      outsiders

      Stuff Wish List: for the Outsiders

      December 17, 2021

      Latest Video

      Sonos

      SONOS Roam SL unboxing by Toby Shapshak

      March 30, 2022
      Mini Cooper

      The Mini Cooper SE Electric with Toby Shapshak

      March 18, 2022
      MSI Crosshair 15 Rainbox Six Extraction Edition unboxing

      MSI Crosshair 15 Rainbox Six Extraction Edition unboxing

      March 16, 2022
      Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Unboxing

      Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra unboxing with Toby Shapshak

      March 16, 2022
      Contact

      South Africa's Consumer Tech News Hub

      General: [email protected]
      Subscriptions: [email protected] or 087 353 1291
      Editorial: 072 735 2614
      Sales: 083 375 2418

      Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube SoundCloud

      Subscribe to Updates

      • Terms and Conditions
      • Privacy & POPI
      • My account
      © 2022 Stuff Group. Designed by Chronon.

      Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.