South Africa’s Townships Are Worried About Soldiers, Not Coronavirus

When South African president Cyril Rhamaphosa announced a three week lockdown on 23 March, he acknowledged that his country is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. The virus, he said, is “extremely dangerous for a population like ours, with a large number of people with suppressed immunity because of HIV and TB, and high levels of poverty and malnutrition.” About a quarter of South Africans live in townships – in cramped, unsanitary conditions, rife with health problems. HIV is more prevalent than in the rest of the population, and in some communities, rates of TB are as high as 80 percent.