Winter is coming. We can certainly feel it. On Tuesday, the Joburg sky outside our office windows was an eerie, deep grey, matching the grim national mood that descended when President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national disaster in response to the globe-engulfing Covid-19 pandemic.

It is difficult to think of anything else now. On one level, we all have our personal fears and anxieties, but there are also fears about what it means for SA’s broader society, with its poverty and inequality, and its high rates of HIV, tuberculosis and diabetes...