{"id":188072,"date":"2021-05-05T20:00:17","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T18:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/pasha-106-covid-19-is-increasing-inequality-in-south-africa\/"},"modified":"2021-05-05T20:00:17","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T18:00:17","slug":"pasha-106-covid-19-is-increasing-inequality-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/pasha-106-covid-19-is-increasing-inequality-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Pasha 106: COVID-19 is increasing inequality in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/pasha-106-covid-19-is-increasing-inequality-in-south-africa.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>Unemployment, poverty and hunger were issues South Africa knew all too well even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has made them worse. Job losses have increased and unemployment has not been offset by a massive government economic stimulus package and wage compensation scheme.<\/p>\n<p>But the COVID-19 impact has been unequal for the most part. The worst affected sectors of the economy, like tourism and hospitality, tend to employ relatively low-skilled workers. The country\u2019s temporary ban on alcohol also had an impact on jobs in bars and restaurants. Low- and semi-skilled workers tend to live in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/township-South-Africa\">townships<\/a> within South African cities; the poorest live in informal settlements. So these communities have been affected far worse than those in the suburbs. <\/p>\n<p>Research by our two guests shows that during the hard lockdown in April 2020 unemployment reached a staggering rate of 50% for shack dwellers and 40% in townships but less than 30% in the suburbs. Informal traders were badly affected by the initial lockdown and abandoned street trading. <\/p>\n<p>In today\u2019s episode of Pasha, Ivan Turok and Justin Visagie at the Human Sciences Research Council discuss how COVID-19 has affected South Africa\u2019s urban population.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Photo:<\/strong><br \/>\u201cPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa, April 24 2020, homeless people next to the road during Corona virus lockdown Covid-19 pandemic sitting with rocks and chairs out of focus\u201d by Africanstar found on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/pretoria-gauteng-south-africa-april-24-1712491057\">Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Music:<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cHappy African Village\u201d by John Bartmann, found on <a href=\"http:\/\/freemusicarchive.org\/music\/John_Bartmann\/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One\/happy-african-village\">FreeMusicArchive.org<\/a> licensed under <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/\">CC0 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSad or Happy Movie Scene\u201d by Soundscapes55, found on <a href=\"https:\/\/freesound.org\/people\/Soundscapes55\/sounds\/456385\/\">Freesound<\/a> licensed under <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/\">Attribution License.<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/africa\/\">Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unemployment, poverty and hunger were issues South Africa knew all too well even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has made them worse. Job losses have increased and unemployment has not been offset by a massive government economic stimulus package and wage compensation scheme. But the COVID-19 impact has been unequal for the most part. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":188073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-188072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-mypr","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/pasha-106-covid-19-is-increasing-inequality-in-south-africa.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}