In the run-up to president Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on Sunday night, social media was abuzz with comments from people saying they would not be watching as they no longer had any interest in what he had to say; some were even calling for mass civil disobedience if the lockdown regulations were tightened.

It is clear that the government has lost the goodwill of a large portion of the country and that once the reality of what the lockdown would do hit home — businesses shuttered, some permanently; jobs lost; people starving — it  lost much of the buy-in given in such good faith at the start of the lockdown in March...