- About one in 10 Basotho (11%) say a member of their household became ill with COVID-19 or tested positive for the virus, while more than one-third (37%) say someone in their household lost a job, business, or primary source of income due to the pandemic (Figure 1).
- About one in seven Basotho (15%) report that their household received pandemic- related assistance from the government. Only a minority (38%) say such assistance was distributed fairly (Figure 2).
- Three-quarters of citizens believe that “a lot” (64%) or “some” (12%) of the resources intended for the COVID-19 response have been lost to corruption (Figure 3).
- Basotho are almost evenly split in their assessments of the government’s overall performance in managing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic: 46% say it is doing “fairly well” or “very well,” while 50% say it is doing a poor job (Figure 4).
- But large majorities are dissatisfied with the government’s efforts to minimise disruptions to children’s education (76%), provide relief to vulnerable households (68%), and ensure that health facilities are adequately resourced (64%) (Figure 5).
- More than four in five Basotho (83%) say they have been vaccinated against COVID- 19 (Figure 6).
More than one in three Basotho say their household lost a primary source of income because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but only about one in seven say they received pandemic-related assistance from the government, a recent Afrobarometer survey indicates.
A majority of citizens say pandemic-related assistance was distributed unfairly, and most think that a lot of the resources intended for the COVID-19 response were lost to corruption.
While almost half of Basotho approve of the government’s overall response to COVID-19, far fewer give it good marks when it comes to supporting vulnerable households, minimising disruptions to children’s education, and ensuring that health facilities are adequately resourced.
Most respondents report having been vaccinated against COVID-19, and fewer than one in 10 express a reluctance to accept the vaccine.
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