The economic impact caused by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has been extensive, with many workers having their salaries and working hours reduced or lost jobs.
These are some of the findings by the Gauteng City-Regions Observatory’s (GCRO) Quality of Life Survey, which highlighted the substantial and profound impact that Covid-19 has had on overall quality of life, health and wellbeing of residents in the Gauteng city-region.
The GCRO’s survey is one of the largest and longest running social surveys in SA. It is conducted biennially, through face-to-face interviews — with a sample size of 13,616 in its current iteration.
GCRO executive director Rashid Seedat said 2020 and 2021 would go down in history as an extraordinary period.
“The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic led to severe disruptions to normal economic activity and social interaction.”
He said grants and social support had provided some crucial protection to the most vulnerable.
“However, in general, the most advantaged have been least affected, while black African and lower to middle income households have been hit hardest.”
The survey found that in many ways the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed and worsened existing inequalities around wealth, race and gender.
The data from the survey suggested that white respondents, those with higher levels of education and those from wealthier households had been able to shield themselves from the more severe economic impacts better than those with a lower socio-economic status.
Two thirds of respondents expressed satisfaction with the way in which the government responded to the pandemic.
The survey said government had put in place significant social safety nets, with many households benefiting from the Social Relief in Distress grants or food parcels
It found there had also been large shifts in behaviour of households in response to the pandemic and to lockdown regulations.
Most respondents said they had avoided public gatherings, 41% kept children away from school and 35% changed how they purchased groceries.
Other findings showed that one in four respondents (25%) reported that an adult in their household had skipped a meal in the past year because there was not enough money to pay for food.
The survey said this continued a trend of increasing reports of skipped meals since 2013/14.
The survey also found that one in five households with children (20%) reported children skipping meals in the last year.
This is one percentage point lower than in 2017/18 (21%), but substantially higher than the 11% reported in 2013/14.
On a more positive note, 44% of households with children reported that children were benefiting from a school feeding scheme. This was a significant increase from 29% in 2015/16.
Two thirds of respondents expressed satisfaction with the way in which the government responded to the pandemic.
“However, satisfaction with all spheres of government has declined considerably since 2017/18.
“The proportion of respondents satisfied with national government fell from 43% to 33%, while satisfaction with provincial government fell from 44% to 29%,” the survey found.
The proportion of respondents satisfied with local government was lowest of all, at 26%, down from an already low 29% in 2017/18.
