A Reflection of Community Dilemmas Driven by the Advent of Coronavirus in Eclectic Rural Contexts in South Africa

Abstract

In the 2020-2021 epoch, South Africa faced the arduous challenge of fighting COVID-19 due to limited resources. This paper reflects how the disease affected communities in eclectic rural contexts in South Africa. This article applied a review of the literature methodology. The researchers drew their literature from journal articles, book chapters, and informal community conversations amid the researchers’ experiential intuition. The article reflects that South African rural communities faced coronavirus-driven dilemmas due to the following factors: Society being subjected to conflicting messages, a state of stigma and stigmatisation, misleading information packaging, fear associated with failure to understand the disease’s aetiology and epidemiology; and states of poverty associated with loss of several business closures and termination of employment; the phenomenon of myths and misinformation; scepticisms and conspiracies; as well as a manifestation of various forms of love deficit. This article recommends that social service professionals such as psychologists, counsellors, and social workers be on the frontline to conduct psychotherapeutic education to communities to build their resilience to fight the coronavirus. The study provides scientific data on the historical glimpse of the impact of pandemics in rural communities of South Africa. It prepares societies for other pandemics that may come in the future.

Keywords

• community dilemmas
• coronavirus
• myths
• entrepreneurial spirit
• fear.