The novel corona virus (Covid-19) reportedly originated in China towards the end of 2019. It immediately became uncontrollably out of hand in early 2020 as more and more people were infected across the world. Shortly thereafter, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it to be a pandemic – underscoring the seriousness of the virus. With this declaration, countries across the world were urged by the WHO to impose mandatory lockdowns in the quest to manage the spread of the virus. This, among other things, implied shutting down economic activities of countries, most of which were still battling to recover from the 2008 global financial crisis that plunged the global economy into recession with deleterious consequences for developing countries. The shutting down of economies complicated and exacerbated the governance challenges of affected countries. In the case of South Africa, this was far worse. In this editorial, we tease