To assist with the emergency response to COVID-19, Good Governance Africa (GGA) has compiled a socio-economic profile of vulnerability of the average South African citizen encountered in our work, based on aggregated data from research that we have undertaken across nine municipalities in five of South Africa’s provinces over the past three years. The aim is to assist government, the private sector and civil society in formulating the best possible
socio-economic relief for those whose livelihoods will be most impacted by the lockdown and
afterwards. Since the South African government announced the extension of the lockdown, which was deemed necessary to contain the spread of the disease, identify hotspots and “get ahead of the curve”, the economic consequences for all, but particularly the country’s poorest, have become clear.The lived reality of many South Africans who reside in informal settlements means that they are unable to isolate and adhere to quarantine measures. Also, small businesses and informal traders will be unable to operate as they did before the lockdown. The following report will provide a socio-economic “snapshot” of communities surveyed by Good Governance Africa (GGA) through several projects across nine municipalities in five provinces in South Africa based on data aggregated from variants of our standard citizen governance survey run over the past three years. Our aim is to assist in the emergency response by understanding the needs of some typical communities based on our work, given the impact of COVID-19 during this lockdown period and beyond.
