The national lockdown imposed as a result of the outbreak of coronavirus couldn't have come at a worse time for Mthobisi Sobhudula.

He was just nine months into a job and things had already started looking gloomy.

Sobhudula, 34, of Malvern, Johannesburg, worked for a maintenance company which provided services mostly for clinics and hospitals.

Most of the work involved tiling and replacing them when broken. But the job calls began to drop.

"In November last year things were already not going well. We were just doing one clinic in town and Selby Clinic. You would go when there are tiles that have cracked to fix them but there was not much work. We would work just for three days.

"January, it was bad and February was worse. By the time we reached the lockdown things were really not going well. There was very little work that we did. By that time we were not getting paid well. There was no overtime. We would work for just two days a week," Sobhudula said.

But when the lockdown started then there was no more work to do.

"For now the biggest problem is food and rent. That is what one needs to take care of," he said.

Sobhudula has three children aged 12, eight and five. One lives in Cape Town and the other two are back home in the Eastern Cape.

It has been hard to take care of them without any income.

"While the mothers of my children understand the situation that I am facing, I as a man feel the pain," he said.

Sobhudula has been able to negotiate with his landlord and pays half of the R1,800 rental.

He said the restrictions on gatherings make it difficult for the nation to remember the sacrifices made by the youth of 1976.

"I can think about June 16 but there is no way I can celebrate it under the circumstances that the whole country is facing," he said.

Although he has not applied for any Covid-19 relief, he commended government for providing some relief for the poor.

"We should not be complaining," he said.

He is hopeful that things will change in the near future.