It has been 26 years since the end of apartheid, a system of racial segregation enforced in South Africa for 40 years. Yet the country remains the world’s most unequal, with the majority of the country’s land and wealth owned by its minority white population.

Lockdown has brought this lingering inequality to the forefront as South Africans of different economic levels complain about different aspects of their lockdown experiences. 

South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. On the left, shacks in the informal settlement of Khayelitsha. On the right, houses overlooking Llandudno beach. Both are in Cape Town. Photo by Tommy Trenchard

Affluent and predominantly white South Africans, confined to comfortable and spacious houses, have complained of restrictions on outdoor exercise such as jogging and surfing. 

For the first five weeks of lockdown, no outdoor exercise or walking of dogs was allowed. Now, walking or jogging is allowed from 6 a.m. to 9.a.m. , but beaches and the ocean remain off limit. Some say that this three hour limitation is arbitrary, and serves only to create crowding on public running paths and oceanfront promenades.

“I thought that yoga was an okay exercise,” said tearful Samantha Vietri after being reprimanded by police for doing yoga on Muizenburg Beach.

“They didn’t even want to give me time to put my shoes on, she said. “It was just a horrible experience and not a way that people should be treated”.

Surfers protest at Blouberg Beach, Cape Town against the South African government’s banning of surfing during the COVID-19 lockdown. Photo by Nardus Engelbrecht.

“To us, surfing is more than just being in the water, it’s a culture,” said Surfer Anton Fourie “ And not being able to surf is torture.”

But for millions of impoverished black South Africans, yoga and surfing are the least of their worries. For those confined to small shacks in overcrowded townships or rural villages with poor lighting, no electricity and communal toilets, hunger has been the most difficult part of this lockdown. Initial studies have estimated that 34 percent of South Africans have gone to bed hungry since the lockdown began.

Many of these people live day to day, surviving on day wages received for casual labor. Since lockdown began in March, these people have been without income. Without income, hunger has set in, and there have been incidents of looting and theft from local grocery stores and food delivery trucks.

“I’m not earning anything now,” said Thandi Lebho, who lives in Diepsloot township with her husband and three children. 

“I’m starving now. I don’t have anything, she said.”

In some areas, hungry people wait for food handouts in lines that are over two miles long. The South African government is providing food parcels to some South Africans, but government officials have been accused of bribery and nepotism in the provision of these parcels. Some immigrants have also complained that they have been denied food parcels because they are not South African citizens. As a result, millions of South Africans are not receiving any food assistance.

“If the government cannot give us food parcels as promised, it should scrap the lockdown and let us go back to work and hustle for our families to eat,” said Nonkikelelo Mceki, a domestic worker living in Tsakane who has been out of work since the lockdown began.

Some South Africans have started handing out food parcels to the hungry. But without a special permit, this is considered a violation of lockdown restrictions. 

A food delivery truck is looted in Bishop Lavis in Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by Armand Hough

Many have criticized the government’s strict lockdown rules, including the prohibition of the sale of alcohol or cigarettes for almost seven weeks, as being irrational, arbitrary, and brutally imposed. 

Former finance minister Trevor Manuel, is among those who say that lockdown restrictions have been too harshly implemented.

“There are daily reports of the abuse of power by the security forces, including assaults with sjamboks [leather whips]; the arrest of citizens for the pettiest of infractions; the payment of admission of guilt fines by people desperate to get out of custody, and a long list of instances of misbehaviour,” Manuel wrote.

But the government has defended its strict restrictions as a means of saving lives. 

“Imposing a nationwide lockdown gave our country a strategic advantage,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa in a recent national newsletter. “It bought us valuable time to prepare our health system and put in place containment measures. This has slowed transmission and saved lives.”

According to the South African Department of Health, there have been 10,652 COVID-19 infections confirmed in South Africa, with 206 deaths. Although the infection rate remains low compared to those in other countries, some are concerned that the actual infection rate may be far higher, given that only 6,004 tests have been conducted per million people. 

The infection rate has also been increasing sharply and is expected to worsen during the winter months from May until August, when it is expected to reach a peak.

“The coronavirus crisis will pass,” said President Ramaphosa. “But for as long as it remains a threat to the lives of our people, we must remain vigilant, diligent and responsible. We will need to adapt to new ways of worshipping, socialising, exercising and meeting that minimise opportunities for the virus to spread.”

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An ordinary Citi Bike Station in Tribeca was transformed into a celebration of South African artist Esther Mahlangu as a mural inspired by her colorful iconographic work was unveiled on the street yesterday.

Mahlangu, 81, regally stood over the work painted on the corner of Tribeca’s Franklin Street and West Broadway. She wore her native Ndebele tribe garments and traditional rings around her neck and ankles.

Mahlangu’s art, commissioned by world-renowned brands such as BMW, Fiat and British Airways, represents large-scale contemporary graphics inspired by her heritage. Now Citi Bikers will get to park their bikes literally on a mural that embodies a celebration of South African culture. Citi Bike partnered with South Africa Tourism and South African Airways to fund the mural.

Imani Shanklin Roberts’ mural on the corner of Franklin Street and West Broadway in Tribeca on September 13, 2017. Photo credit: Stella Levantesi

Standing on the mural, representatives of Citi Bike and South Africa Tourism delivered a lively press conference to a small group of people that gathered round to listen and politely cheer when the artists were introduced.

“This is the third mural we’ve painted at a Citi Bike station through the Department of Transportation art program, but it’s the first one we’ve done with the support of a partner, who gave us the opportunity to share Esther’s traditional artwork with the people of New York,” said William Bissell, director of Sales and Partnerships at Motivate International Inc., which operates the Citi Bike program.

The mural’s artist, Imani Shanklin Roberts, stood by Mahlangu beaming.

“Bringing bright colors allows us to be joyous, a lot of the hues I used I’ve seen in Esther’s work and I really wanted to stay true to that design,” said Roberts.

A brief ribbon cutting by Mahlangu was marked by most people holding their phones up in the air, slightly tilted towards the ground to get a better perspective of the mural’s patterns.

Mahlangu, who artistically follows traditions inherited by her mother and grandmother, said the idea of passing on female imagery is something that she defined as “transforming her skin.”

“I’m proud of seeing other women taking these things forward,” she said.

Artists Esther Mahlangu (left) and Imani Shanklin Roberts (right) at the unveiling of Roberts’ mural in Tribeca. Photo credit: Stella Levantesi

And Roberts’ art is Afro-centered and revolves around the African American culture fueled by her parents. It reflects an ambivalent struggle, first as a woman and then as an African American. Although Roberts’ work is what she called “Afro-conscious”, it’s also charged with a strong feminine identity that in being amidst race is not necessarily a racially connected experience.

“To be a woman in the world is a battle that everyone can relate to, something that surpasses race,” said Roberts. “Now I have a young daughter and I feel I have to put out images in the world that allow her to feel empowered and that push her to be the best she can.”

In 2009, Roberts moved from her hometown, Washington D.C., to New York, where she now teaches social studies at the South Bronx Community Charter High School. It was in this city that, for the first time, race became relevant to her both as a woman and an artist.

“My inspiration came when I moved to New York, when I found myself entering spaces where I was the only black woman, where the majority of people doesn’t necessarily reflect your own journey,” said Roberts. “I felt an unheard voice. I was always challenged to document the African American experience.”

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