Johannesburg residents don’t trust each other much, but the real story isn’t about a decrease; it’s a rebound that faded. Just 26% of Joburg residents say most people in their community can be trusted today, almost exactly where that figure sat in 2017/18 (27%). In between, though, trust spiked to 34% in the 2020/21 GCRO survey, fielded in the wake of the hardest Covid-19 lockdowns.

Joburg isn’t alone in this pattern, though its rebound-and-fade was unusually clean. Some municipalities, like Tshwane and Midvaal, never fully came back down, while others, like Merafong and Rand West, dropped even lower than before.

GCRO researcher Christian Hamann says the timing is telling, even if there’s no confirmed cause. He suggests lockdown life pushed neighbours into each other’s view for the first time. You couldn’t really say you knew your neighbour if all you knew was that they left for work at 5am and returned at 7pm. He also suggests there could have been a sense of solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic, as people supported each other. But as he put it, that goodwill “dissipated a bit after Covid as things returned to normal”.

Produced in partnership with Our City News.