South Africa is trying to balance surging covid-19 cases with rekindling economic activity
had always wanted to return home, but not like this. In 2006 she left Laaste Hoop, her village in Limpopo, South Africa’s most rural province, and moved in with her sister in Johannesburg, the country’s economic hub. It took four years but eventually she found a job, as a tea-lady in an office. In 2015 she was promoted to administrator. Her salary supported four others: a brother, her mother and two children. There was enough spare cash for a plot in Laaste Hoop.
According to the research, one in three people who earned an income in February did not do so in April. About half of the erstwhile earners were permanently laid off, rather than furloughed, suggesting that the effects of the pandemic will be long-lasting. South Africa’s eye-wateringly high unemployment rate—30% as of the first quarter of 2020—is set to rise further.
Jobless returnees have put pressure on families. Of the households that received people in May, most reported that they ran out of money for food. Overall nearly half of respondents said they could not afford enough food in April—more than twice the share of households saying they could not do so at any point during 2017, according to a comparable survey.
South Africa is trying to balance surging caseloads with rekindling economic activity . It is a huge task. In June a benchmark measure of business confidence plunged to its lowest level since it began in 1975. The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry worries that the unemployment rate could reach 50%. Eskom, the state-run power utility, has reintroduced rolling blackouts. The public finances, already damaged by years of corruption, wasteful spending and low growth, are perilous.
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