Will African states use Covid-19 to grab more power?

never let a good crisis go to waste, SirWinston Churchill may, or may not, have said. Many politicians and economists are now taking that advice anyway, capitalising on the Covid-19 crisis, to advance their own agendas or justify their pet theories.

In South Africa, for instance, the a strong anti-smoker, seems controversially to have browbeaten President Cyril Ramaphosa into reversing policy and imposing a ban on tobacco and cigarette sales during the lockdown. The minister of trade and industry, Ebrahim Patel, likewise banned e-commerce partly because of “the impact on other businesses”.