The government has said it will use phone data to trace coronavirus contacts, though it insists this practice will not outlive the epidemic. Refugees have been forcibly removed from buildings in the city center where they'd been squatting. Phillips, whose research explores how epidemics provide opportunities or triggers for governments to take actions not possible in ordinary times, sees a similar phenomenon unfolding in the current outbreak. To reach their workplaces, they must risk contracting the virus on one of the few buses still running.īoys walk past shuttered businesses in the township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa, during the country's coronavirus lockdown. They're exempt from the government's stay-at-home order, but few have cars.

Many of those who help keep the city's hospitals and food supply functioning live in the townships.

Last week, riots erupted in the township of Mitchells Plain after rumors of a food distribution turned out to be false, and a string of shops and food trucks have been looted.Īsked what she thinks might happen if the lockdown restrictions are extended, Qezo's reply is stark: 'People will die. Few Khayelitsha residents had much in the way of savings when the virus struck, and many are increasingly worried about how they'll continue to feed their families if the lockdown continues. Yet in the townships, fear of the virus is outstripped by the fear of running out of money, as the lockdown has brought the economy to a grinding halt. South Africa has so far registered some 3,300 cases of COVID-19. On day nine of the lockdown, there was a two-hour wait to get into the store.

Shoppers line up outside a supermarket in the township of Khayelitsha.

Start of lockdown south africa