This article explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable people in South Africa in the specific context of poverty and inequality. It does so by first looking at the conceptual context and then highlighting the extent of the impact both from a constitutional and human rights context and from a legislative context. It uses the poor and vulnerable as a proxy to explore the impact of the pandemic (and the measures put in place to contain it) on the specific constitutional rights of vulnerable people, before suggesting a human rights-based approach to managing the pandemic. It concludes that, despite the South African government having undertaken some of the actions recommended, there remains room for improvement and scope for further research, as the pandemic is expected to continue for some time.

本文探讨了 COVID-19 大流行在贫困和不平等的特定背景下对南非弱势群体的影响。它首先查看概念背景，然后从宪法和人权背景以及立法背景突出影响的程度。在建议采用基于人权的方法来管理大流行之前，它以穷人和弱势群体为代表，探讨大流行（以及为遏制大流行而采取的措施）对弱势人群的特定宪法权利的影响。它的结论是，尽管南非政府已采取了一些建议的行动，但仍有改进的空间和进一步研究的余地，因为预计大流行将持续一段时间。