South Africa Struggles to Contain Coronavirus While the Economy Crumbles

While such African countries as Tanzania and Burundi chose to simply ignore the dangers of Covid-19, or lagged on testing and contact tracing—like Nigeria—South Africa did everything by the book. In March, shortly after the first coronavirus case in the country was detected, it shut its borders, instituted one of Africa’s strictest lockdowns, including bans on tobacco and alcohol sales, and rolled out a program to test millions of citizens. President Cyril Ramaphosa won plaudits for mobilizing popular support to help the country weather the disease. His health minister, medical doctor Zweli Mkhize, crisscrossed the nation to carry the president’s message.

Five months later, the country has the world’s fifth-biggest outbreak, with nearly 600,000 confirmed cases. The reason: South Africa’s Covid-19 crisis collided with its ailing economy and dysfunctional politics. The country didn’t have the financial resources to extend many elements of its lockdown any longer than the initial five weeks, as the number of unemployed and hungry surged. By May, it still had fewer than 4,000 cases and only 75 deaths, but the economy had already made a turn for the worse, and the government was forced to allow people to go back to work.