The American physicist, J Robert Oppenheimer, sometimes credited as the ‘father’ of the atomic bomb, said of the challenges and changes of that age that ‘the world alters as we walk in it’. He might well have been speaking of the world after Covid-19.

The pandemic, and effects of the ensuing lockdown have disrupted the global economy, accelerated developments, amplified contradictions and challenges, and forced rapid adaptation. These events might encourage longer-term improvements to the way the world works. This will depend on the way states respond. There is reason to believe that demand consumption will speed a return to normal economic activity, sooner rather than later.

After all, people remain sociable creatures, with appetites and needs. But there are some forces driving a different economy to that pre-Covid with implications for South Africa and the tough choices that must be made. Find out more in our latest discussion paper.

Paper by the Brenthurst Foundation