The COVID-19 pandemic made things worse for the ordinary South African. Food inflation has risen to 6.3%, the highest since 2017, the unemployment rate rose to 32.6% in the first quarter of 2021, and also, there has been an increase of gender-based violence influenced by lock-down restrictions. On this page, we explain ways in which the covid 19 pandemic has exposed the social injustices in South Africa.
- Economic Injustices: Covid has polarised the South African upper class and lower class. In other words, the gap between the rich and poor has widened because of the aftermaths of Covid-19, such as: job loss and high inflation.
- Gender-based violence: By early April 2020, over half the world’s population was living under lockdown and women and men with violent partners found themselves trapped with their abusers and cut off from the support of friends and family.
- Discrimination: due to the increasing economic insecurities that covid brought, many forms of discrimination types were fueled up, such as xenophobia, hatred toward the rich, as well as hatred toward the poor. All these culminated in the great social unrest and looting which took place in the areas of Johannesburg and Durban.