Lebohang Motloung, a grade 11 pupil, lives in Tembisa, the sprawling township on the East Rand. He stays in a single room shack and cares for his sick mother and father.

At 19 years old, he’s at an age when young men feel invincible. But right now, Motloung tells the FM, he’s afraid. Not of Covid-19 — that’s a distant, almost abstract concern. Rather, his family has no food, and he’s heard talk of the brutality of the police and soldiers patrolling the township. So he’s worried about stepping outside to find food...