ABSTRACT
South Africa, which could have expected a strong populist response to the pandemic, instead experienced one that was delayed and equivocal. The African National Congress (ANC) government under President Cyril Ramaphosa sought to develop a science-based and responsible policy. The first to move against it was a liberal party, the Democratic Alliance. Those groups most often accused of populism, including former President Jacob Zuma’s faction of the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, supported government policy, and then came out in opposition in often incoherent and idiosyncratic ways. They argued for an extension of South Africa’s first lockdown, and then a year later opposed its third. In June 2021, the EFF threatened to disrupt lockdown until the government authorized and rolled out Chinese and Russian vaccines. In July, Zuma’s faction demanded an end to lockdown, but as part of a campaign to release Zuma from prison. These political formations, since Ramaphosa assumed the presidency in 2018, have been on the defensive, concerned with shoring up existing patronage systems and fending off prosecutions. It is necessary to understand this background, to explain their response to the pandemic.
