This archive report was first published on 12 July 2020.
South Africa is facing a perfect storm of violence and COVID-19 as the country's provinces enter the peak of the pandemic.
According to the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the actual death toll from COVID-19 may be as many as three times higher than the officially recorded 3,720, with around 7,000 'excess deaths' emerging from an analysis of national health, death, and morbidity data.
The SAMRC said that comparing deaths with previous periods, actual fatalities from all causes are responsible for the excess figure, meaning COVID-19 is almost certainly responsible for most.
Health officials fear that hospitals will be swamped with the sick and dying once the virus takes full grip in vast urban settlements and mini-cities like Soweto.
Meanwhile, the country's police minister, Bheki Cele, has expressed concern over the rise in violence, which has seen over 5,000 police officers infected with coronavirus, with 37 deaths.
Cele said that perpetrators of violence would be hunted down, and that the force is coping with the pandemic, but is concerned by the mounting toll it is taking on those left standing.
Gender-based violence has also raised its head again, with celebrities and high-profile endorsements of the 'End GBV Movement' similar to the Black Lives Matter Movement in the US.
