Last Thursday evening on the Money Show, Bruce Whitfield played a recording of a teleconference that Grant Pattison, the CEO of Edcon hosted with suppliers.

Pattison explained the dire financial position that Edcon finds itself in because of the lockdown and the high likelihood that they would not be able to honour orders or payments.

Towards the end of the teleconference it became too much for Pattison and he broke down in tears. After the clip ended Bruce Whitfield was also overwhelmed by emotion and had to take an ad break in order to compose himself.  

I’m sure that everyone who listened to that, shed a tear as well.  

The world is scary at the moment and is getting scarier as we are entering Day 6 of lockdown.

Things don’t feel normal, because they aren’t.

Our routines are disrupted. We can no longer socialise. We have no idea how the world will look when all of this is over, or when it will be over.

Business owners don’t know if they can pay workers, suppliers or refund customers.

Self-employed people don’t know if they will have any work. Workers don’t know if they will get paid and if they will be able to put food on the table.  

From everyone I speak to it is clear that the novelty of being at home is beginning to wear off and that people are starting to struggle emotionally.

People are finding it hard to sleep, tempers are fraying and depressions are on the rise.   

On the night before lockdown, I was finally over my 14 day quarantine and quickly drove to my sister’s house to deliver Spekboompies that her kids wanted to plant.

In return, she was to lend me some ridiculously complicated puzzles. My sister has her elderly father-in-law staying with her and (rightly so) didn’t want to take any chances.

So she left the puzzles outside the gate and we shouted a brief "hallo" from two meters away in the dark, while my darling little nephews hovered at the back.  

As I drove away, I had my own little meltdown. It was day 15 of isolation for me and the idea of another three weeks felt just too much as I struggled with the image of my sister and nephews behind a gate.