As a consequence of the lack of structural changes, the economic situation in South Africa was precarious even before the pandemic. The unemployment rate has always remained high; in the fourth quarter of 2019 it was 29.1%. Poverty is widespread. In 2015, 30.4 million people, 55.5% of the population, lived below the official poverty line. In female-headed households, the proportion was significantly higher than in male-headed households. A quarter of the population, 13.8 million people, lived in extreme poverty and could not afford enough food to meet their basic material needs.
South Africa's growth curve has been downward for more than ten years. Between 2011 and 2018, economic growth averaged just 1.7%. In 2019, the country entered a recession for the third time since 1994. Several factors were responsible for this, including Whatsapp Mobile Number List recession following the global financial crisis, falling commodity prices, deindustrialization, state capture ( read: systemic corruption), budget cuts, restrictive macroeconomic policy, and falling investment as a result of economic stagnation and unreliable electricity supply.
More and more people find in the state an instrument for ruthless self-enrichment. State institutions are looted and emptied. This reality is the breeding ground for the acute governance crisis in South Africa. The combination of economic and political crises is causing confidence in the constitutional order to decline more and more.