As I went for one of my early-morning runs last week, it was a rubbish collection day. As I panted up and down hills on the comfortable, sequestered roads around Observatory, I noticed many more people than usual foraging in the bins. These were not just waste-pickers. On that day the small army of informal workers who sift rubbish for a living was supplemented by people picking through bins for scraps of food.

For example, according to a University of Johannesburg/ Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) survey, 34% of the people surveyed between 18 to 27 April reported that they had gone to bed hungry (up by 6% from an earlier survey).

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