The South African middle-class experience during the COVID-19 pandemic is understudied. This chapter aims to understand the practical wisdom and coping strategies employed by middle-class South Africans during the pandemic and explore the relationship between their risk perceptions and evaluation of the government’s performance. The authors conducted a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews targeted to this group. The main findings are threefold. First, middle-class persons were less adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than the poor, while at the same time they suffered stress. Second, middle-class persons showed mixed evaluations of the government’s COVID-19 policy. Third, the middle class are not only self-reliant but also providers of support and resilience to the poor during the pandemic. They hold the civic value of supporting others in difficulties, while they criticise governmental policy failure and corruption.