Data released on Thursday, 9 July by Statistics South Africa showed manufacturing production plunged 49.4% during the month compared to April 2019. This is yet another grim indication that the second-quarter economic contraction was simply staggering.
While it may well be a once-off shock related to the lockdown measures, the picture that emerges is that South Africa effectively de-industrialised during April 2020. Things would have been far worse but for the fact that South Africans still needed to eat during the month.