Impending Economic Crisis in African Countries Amid the Pandemic

Coronavirus has been slow to arrive in Africa but the continent has been warned the wave is coming. South Africa has so far been the hardest hit and it’s responded with some of the harshest lockdown restrictions in the world. Faeza Meyer lives in a township in the Cape Flats on the outskirts of Cape Town and is finding social distancing and getting enough food difficult in cramped conditions. Businesses have also been hit hard as we hear from Thato Rangaka-Maroga in Johannesburg who runs five family businesses - all but one of which are now closed. We also talk to Dr Mary Stephen, from the World Health Organisation’s Africa office in Brazzaville, Congo and Isaac Matshego, an economist at Nedbank in Johannesburg. (Picture: The South African National Defence Force patrols the streets of Cape Town during the national lockdown by Brenton Geach for Getty Images).