BP 506: A New Kind of Deal for South Africa

South Africa faces unprecedented economic challenges. Some, such as the billions of Rands scurried away by those bent on emptying the state coffers, have been self-inflicted; others, such as the devastating effects of COVID-19, are imported. When Statistics South Africa released its latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the three months to March 2020 (this excluded the lockdown period) it revealed that South Africa’s unemployment rate stood at 30.1%. A recent survey by the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), called the Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM),[i] noted that approximately three million South Africans lost their jobs between February and April 2020. Women accounted for two million of these job losses.[ii]

[i] The National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) assesses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on employment and welfare of a representative sample of 7 000 South Africans. Thirty social science researchers from five South African universities helped to put together the study, which spans 11 reports with findings on health, employment, hunger and welfare.

[ii] The CRAM reports available online at https://cramsurvey.org/

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