The country's elites can no longer jet away to overseas health facilities and must now face the hospital system that could not help Zororo Makamba, a 30-year-old who died of the virus.
On 19 March 2020, South Africa's Minister of Public Works Patricia de Lille announced that a 40km fence was to be erected on both sides of the Beitbridge border post with Zimbabwe. This was, she explained, to "ensure that no undocumented or infected persons cross into the country". The rationale didn't quite add up because Zimbabwe, officially, had only one case and, by 19 March, South Africa already had 150 confirmed cases of people with the coronavirus.
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