SA's lockdown has been going on for nearly a month. While businesses struggle, the situation has reignited the debate about the country's status as one of the most unequal in the world.
The curfews, stay-at-home orders and relief measures taken by South Africans appear to further expose the thick lines between class and society in this country.
The scale of the coronavirus is significant and has created a huge divide between the rich and the poor in South Africa.
avoid crowds
Twenty-six years after apartheid South Africa remains the most unequal country on earth, according to the World Bank. The fourth week of the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has made the country's divided reality even clearer.
Densely populated townships and cities are patrolled by security forces. Police and military are on the streets and taking strict measures to stop the spread of the new pandemic.
But in places like Khayelitsha, Cape Town's largest and most populated area, adhering to health warnings from the government has never been easy.
Living in small homes and staying in overcrowded hostels has made it difficult to adhere to the social distancing lifestyle needed to stop the spread of COVID-19. .
Staying indoors seems to be ignored in informal settlements. Most of these places use communal toilets and running water. In addition, the stores are located quite far from the community, making it difficult to obtain essential items.
The custodian team strives to keep the restrooms clean every day, but they have noticed a lack of cleaning products. Each facility is used by 30 to 40 people per day.
homeless
In places like Cape Town and Johannesburg, residents regularly wear masks and use hand sanitizer, while in informal settlements governments are struggling to provide essential supplies to fight the virus. Waiting for.
To tackle homelessness during the early stages of SA's lockdown, government authorities gathered more than 1,000 people into a rusting stadium in Pretoria.
Pretoria's thousands of homeless people could be the worst hit if the virus spreads. But tents set up in the field are housing two or three people, posing a new threat to social distancing for people, most of whom have not been tested.
For fear of contracting the virus, many of the men gathered prefer to sleep in stands rather than tents. But again, sleeping outdoors can expose you to other threats, such as robbery.
The situation has led many homeless people to choose to live on the streets rather than be confined to crippled and overcrowded stadiums. The fear that one person will contract the virus and spread it to other unsuspecting people is troubling to many.
Apart from the stadium, the government moved thousands of other people from Cape Town to fenced enclosures. The more people enter, the more the stable becomes overcrowded. Officials say work is still underway to build more tents to reduce this.
Pawn sacrifice?
The coronavirus lockdown is impacting everyone in different ways in South African cities. Nevertheless, in the suburbs, the problem appears to be less urgent than in informal settlements.
In places like Darrenwood, Cresta and Northcliffe, it is not impossible for people to practice social distancing. Residents can afford to stay in their cars and stock their refrigerators with food to reduce their reliance on transportation and mitigation measures.
Job losses and pay cuts are not a blessing to everyone, but people living in the suburbs rarely complain about food shortages. South Africa's checkered history of epidemics and social divisions is once again in the spotlight as people are better able to afford shelter than those living in rural areas.
In places like downtown Johannesburg, locals queuing for food is now the norm due to SA's lockdown. They have to endure long lines and sustain with what they can get because they can't afford to stockpile like people in cities and suburbs.
Riots broke out in Khayelitsha after rumors of food distribution proved false. To make matters worse, some stores and food trucks were looted both inside and outside the protests.
In some South African provinces, government workers are said to be hoarding and selling food parcels meant for people in need, or distributing them to friends and family.
epidemic replay
Clearly, this is not the first time that an epidemic has exposed the real fault lines of poverty and inequality in South Africa. The same problem was pointed out during the historic Spanish Flu in the early 1990s.
When South Africa was hit hard by influenza in 1918, some of the satellite settlements established during the earlier epidemic were replaced by other settlements further away from urban centres. These are beyond the reach of informal settlers.
For example, the first forced expulsions of black Africans from Cape Town and Johannesburg took place in response to epidemics in the early 20th century. At the time, black urban neighborhoods were considered a health risk by white elites.
A similar story lies in the origins of Soweto, a township in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng. It started with the pneumonic plague of 1904, and after the outbreak Indians, but not Africans, were allowed to return to Soweto.
SA's current lockdown has resulted in families being evicted from long-standing informal settlements on city-owned land. The outcry from affected families shows that most people have no shelter in a pandemic as deadly as the coronavirus.
Refugees from South Africa have been removed from a building they had illegally occupied and managed in a South African city centre. There are few accurate predictions about the current trajectory of SA's coronavirus case numbers.
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Featured image: NPR's Tommy Trenchard
