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To contextualize the research findings, the next section of the report reviews the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, the mitigation policies implemented by the South African national government, and the economic impact of these policies on the residents of the low-income townships and informal settlements in the two cities, where the majority of internal migrants reside. [...] During the final quarter of the year, 860,000 of the 1.4 million lost jobs were informal.51 Women in the informal economy saw a decrease of 49% in the typical hours worked in the early months of the pandemic, while men in informal employment saw a 25% decrease in typical hours. [...] As the World Bank observes, ‘more worrying in a country that is already the most unequal in the world is the differential impact of the crisis on the poorer half of the population. [...] Section 2 of the Report provides background details on the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa and the draconian policy response of the national government in its efforts to control and mitigate the pandemic. [...] First, migrants from the Eastern Cape leave for the two cities due to the lack of economic opportunities in that region and the prospect of working and earning income in the main centres of productive activity in the country.