Covid-19 Outbreak and its Contradictions in World Politics: The Cases of Tanzania and South Africa

Abstract

The outbreak of the novel Coronavirus pandemic, widely referred to as COVID-19, in January 2020, took the world by surprise. Things fell apart, as socio-economic and poltical interactions were pertubed, as both developed and developing countries were affected. The COVID-19 crisis also heightened the need for reliable information and existing concerns about the growth of contradictions. The contradictions, therefore, influenced some policymakers to come up with policies on how to deal with the pandemic. For instance, in the case of South Africa, the leadership and governance structures therein developed policies to help curb the spread, thereby avoiding any socio-economic consequences or effects between the people and that state (shutting downing and opening in stages). Nonetheless recorded high infection and death rates. On the other hand, Tanzania assumed a more liberal posture by not shutting down and recorded low infection and dead rates. Thus, both South Africa and Tanzania policymakers saw the spread of this deadly pandemic from two perspectives. These two perspectives have posed serious contradictions to the existence of the COVID-19 as South Africa witnessed a high rate of infection under a serious lockdown of the economy, while Tanzania witnessed a relatively low rate of infection and dead under an open economy. The aim of this paper is to investigate the outbreak of COVID-19 and its contradiction in global politics using South Africa and Tanzania as case studies. While being cognizant of this sharp divide and contradictions in policies, the question therefore is what could be the reasons behind such approaches. Was it as a result of the fact that state leadership and governance was under some external influence in one case and was not in the other? The paper adopts a qualitative research design with a case study approach.