This study reflects the difficulties faced by vendors at taxi ranks and train stations in cities that have lost the majority of their customers as fewer people commute to work; hairstylists, who were not allowed to work and had been without income for months, and business owners who can only make a fraction of their pre-Covid-19 pandemic revenues due to a drop in customers, an increase in costs, international travel bans or event cancellations. The research emphasises how many micro and informal entrepreneurs lost their stock or equipment, for example, because their fresh products became rotten when the lockdown was suddenly imposed. The impact of the lockdown on these businesses was direct, they had no capital left to purchase items, failed to pay instalments for their cars or were unable to replace confiscated equipment.