A few years ago, pre-2020, if you had asked most South Africans what their thoughts on wearing masks in public were, you’d probably be given a reasonable share of confused looks. I imagine people concocting images of Jim Carrey’s 1999 film, or visuals of a massive masked ball in public, and thinking “why on Earth would this be necessary?”
Nowadays, masks have become one of the most frequently used words in our vocabularies. If it isn’t scratching around muttering the word as you search for your mask ticket into a mall, it’s the security guard in a building reminding you to wear your mask with that slanted gaze.
Times have changed since 2020, and thankfully so. The government knew that the National State of Disaster couldn’t last forever (though they certainly held onto it) and recently all the ‘old’ regulations associated with the SoD have expired.
Also read:Masks are here to stay and other ‘new’ health regulations for South Africa
Except, they haven’t.
Swooping in just before midnight to introduce new regulations, the Department of Health made its final call on which regulations would become permanent until deemed unnecessary.
However, here in South Africa, we are well aware that the term necessary is understood pretty loosely, as anyone who remembers being boggled at some of the “essential goods and services” mantra that locked away cigarettes and alcohol (and that Woolies Rotisserie chicken) can substantiate.
So, is the term being understood very loosely once again, and are masks actually necessary, especially when people are only wearing them for a few minutes at a time in most instances anyway?
We decided to ask the Cape {town} Etc family in our own form of a ‘Family Meeting’ to see what you think.
Here’s what people said:
On Instagram:
- 38% of respondents said yes to face masks while
- 62% said no
On Twitter:
- 27.2% said yes to face masks while
- 72.8% said no
On Facebook, opinions were divided, however, most people said no. However, a lot of people said that they were willing to wear face masks despite disliking them. Others said it should be voluntary (ie: up to anyone’s own choice) while others said masks should be worn indoors or if you’re sick.
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Picture: Pexels
