Covid-19 and lockdown in South Africa (video)

The increasing number of those who had contracted the virus had healthcare workers around the country worried.Photo by Elitsha reporter

With the lockdown into its eighth day in South Africa, Elitsha reporters spoke to different groups of marginalised workers about what the lockdown means to them and how the coronavirus has changed their working conditions.

As lockdown under the state of national disaster enters its second week in South Africa workers and working class communities spoke to Elitsha about their fears and what the government should do. The South African Domestic Workers Union features in the video, raising concerns around what the lockdown means for domestic workers and also the impact the virus and the lockdown will have on the working conditions of one of the most vulnerable groups of workers in South Africa and around the world.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions in the Western Cape highlights how workers will suffer more than the propertied classes as a result of the lockdown.

According to activists, the lockdown and the coronavirus outbreak exacerbates and exposes the inequalities in South Africa. The government through the declaration of national disaster has been forced to grant mere handouts to the poor and deployed the army to keep them in check.

Also read:  "It's time for Denel to move way from our communities"

Copyright policy

Creative Commons LicenceThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Should you wish to republish this Elitsha article, please attribute the author and cite Elitsha as its source.

All of Elitsha's originally produced articles are licensed under a Creative Commons license. For more information about our Copyright Policy, please read this.

For regular and timely updates of new Elitsha articles, you can follow us on Twitter, @elitsha2014, and/or become a Elitsha fan on Facebook.