“From midnight on Thursday 26 March until midnight on Thursday 16 April, all South Africans will have to stay at home,” President Cyril Ramaphosa declared on March 23, 2020, in the first of what subsequently became known as his Covid-19 ‘family meetings’. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that some serious lockdown missteps were made in those early days, despite the best of intentions. The remedy now lies in ensuring an effective, efficient and corruption-free vaccination roll-out, without which South Africa’s aspiration of igniting an economic recovery will remain exactly that: an aspiration.