suppanswersOTS2603FEB2023

Question 1 1.1 Information overload, rumours and misinformation can make your life feel out of control and make it unclear what to do. During the COVID-19 pandemic, you may experience stress, anxiety, fear, sadness, and loneliness. And mental health disorders, including anxiety and depression, can worsen. If not properly addressed through policy the social crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic may also increase inequality, exclusion, discrimination, and global unemployment in the medium and long term. 1.2 COVID-19 has turned the world upside down. Everything has been impacted. How we live and interact with each other, how we work and communicate, how we move around and travel. Every aspect of our lives has been affected. Decisions made now and in the coming months will be some of the most important made in generations. They will affect people all around the world for years to come. It is imperative that governments making those decisions have access to the best information available. Throughout this crisis, the international statistics community has continued to work together, in partnership with national statistical offices and systems around the world to ensure that the best quality data and statistics are available to support decision making during and after the crisis. Question 2 2.1 The crisis I have faced recently is loadshedding in our community and the whole of South Africa. Load shedding is having a devastating impact on small businesses in South Africa, affecting production and increasing costs. Some business owners have already had to close businesses and others warn that they are on the brink of having to do so as well. Eskom supplies the vast majority of South Africa’s electricity via a fleet of coal-fired power stations that have been overused and under maintained for years. Taking units offline to perform crucial maintenance work exacerbates loadshedding in the short term because Eskom has very little backup power. This problem was supposed to be fixed by building two of the world’s biggest coal-fired plants, Medupi and Kusile, in the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa. But 15 years after construction started, these plants are only delivering about half of their 9,600 MW combined capacity because of breakdowns, technical defects, completion delays and accidents. Corruption and mismanagement of Eskom, most notably during the Jacob Zuma administration, have exacerbated the energy crisis; incompetence and neglect by Eskom staff in addition to multiple acts of sabotage has also contributed to ongoing power supply problems. To get rid of this crisis, people have resorted to use generators, solar and gas for cooking. I live in the rural areas, so we are using firewood and candle in thee process to adapt to the new normal. b) • death of a sister because the generator was not working at the hospital • depression and stress • financial crisis because parents are not working • hunger and poverty at home • trauma