Jackie Mofokeng has a grim view from the Caroline Street old-age home. Brixton cemetery is both a reminder of nearness of death and — as a refuge for the homeless, who sleep among its headstones — of poverty and neglect in Johannesburg’s inner city. The old-age units at Caroline Street are among the 258 in Jan Hofmeyer, the Johannesburg suburb established in 1935 to provide council housing for working-class white people.
For some people the easing of the lockdown was something to celebrate, as it promised relief from the economic pinch that has afflicted the area’s mostly poor residents. But for the elderly of Jan Hofmeyer, it is a source of fear.Mofokeng’s mask slips below her nose when she talks. The 69-year-old says now that more people are moving around, she is constantly on edge.
In South Africa, 57% of Covid-19-related deaths have been among people between the ages of 60 and 99. According to Statistics South Africa, the country has the largest population of older people in Africa. In addition, about 40% of South Africa’s old people are poor, leaving many dependent on the precarious public healthcare system.
At 3pm, when the serving begins, some walk by the line on their way home from the jobs they have finally returned to. Workers in blue overalls pile out of a bakkie and pause to rest in the lot — one-third playground, two-thirds nothing at all. Working-class communities around the world have felt the brunt of the virus. In the United Kingdom a report by the Offi ce for National Statistics noted that people living in more deprived areas “have experienced Covid-19 mortality rates more than double those living in less deprived areas. General mortality rates are normally higher in more deprived areas, but so far Covid-19 appears to be taking them higher still.
In 2011, 40% of the people living in the ward were economically inactive — 1.4 times the rate of the rest of Gauteng. Many of the older people living in Jan Hofmeyer moved to the suburb only after being allocated spaces in the old-age units. As a result, they have been cut off from their families during the lockdown.“Covid-19 has been stressful. It has been a difficult time for us. Our relatives can’t visit us.
If this isn't one of the saddest things you've ever heard.
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