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Issue: Mid - April, 2020
A book to enjoy while in quarantine
City of Cape Town Newsletter
Worrying Covid-19 trends
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Covid-19: ‘We can’t stay inside when we have no toilets’ PETER LUHANGA ILISO LABANTU
Joshua Matshidiso, 68, had both legs amputated due to an infection in 2010. On Monday 30 March he joined other social grant beneficiaries who rose before sunrise to collect their grants at a nearby retailer pay point in Dunoon. The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) had made provision to enable grant beneficiaries to access their funds during the nationwide lockdown to disrupt the spread of Covid-19. On Monday 30 March Matshidiso arrived at the Dunoon cash payout point at 09:00 and by 11:25 had collected his grant and bought a few essential items - eggs, milk and mielie meal. He wheeled himself to his RDP house about 2km from the Sassa pay point. He said with the pandemic around, he would not dare risk asking someone to push his wheelchair. “I am trying to keep myself away from the crowds,” Matshidiso said. He applauded the service at the Sassa payout point, saying the social distancing rule was observed throughout the process. But outside, Iliso Labantu saw many people queuing with no space between them. Some were waiting their turn to buy essentials and some to cash out their grants. Preference was being given to the elderly and disabled. Sidney Tshibonza, 40, lives in Site 5 informal settlement opposite Dunoon. He lost the use of
JOSHUA MATSHIDISO, who collected his social grant in Dunoon on Monday, says the lockdown rules were obeyed inside the Sassa paypoint. But in Dunoon’s informal settlements, Iliso Labantu saw life going on as usual. Photo. Peter Luhanga
IN DUNOON, people queue closely together to get their social grants. Photo. Peter Luhanga
both his legs in 2016 after an accident at work and also uses a wheelchair. He arrived at the Sassa pay point and was helped in 30 minutes. After buying essentials he wheeled himself back to his oneroom shack. In Dunoon and surrounding informal settlements, few taxis were on the road, but when Iliso Labantu visited, the streets were still full of residents. Small groups of people were sharing a bottle of alcohol and also pass-
ing around a cigarette. Alcohol prices have shot up. A 750ml beer, which normally costs R22, was being sold for R35. In Siyahlala informal settlement, behind Dunoon on the edge of a Transnet railway line, residents were living as normal. When Iliso Labantu asked about Covid-19, some said they did not know what it was, though they had heard about the national lockdown from neighbours.
Here more than 1 000 families used one communal tap and there are no toilets, according to community leader Keanetse Lesesa who was washing her clothes at the tap. Residents crossed the railway line to relieve themselves, she said. Lesesa added the lockdown was not working in the settlement. “We can’t stay indoors when we have no toilets. Our tap is outside. We are overcrowded.” She said residents emptied buckets full of
faeces and urine at the tap and rinsed them. A foul stench wafted up around the communal tap from the accumulating filth. Many residents here were unemployed, said Babalwa Ntese, and the lockdown made it difficult for them to look for casual jobs. She added her child and many other children depended on the school feeding scheme and she did not know what would happen now that schools were closed. “We are going to suffer
a lot. We need help. We need food, hand sanitisers. We have nothing,” she said. No one in the overcrowded settlement was adhering to any social distancing rules and a group of young children were playing between the shacks. Earlier along Mnandi Street in Dunoon, the police were seen jumping out of police vans, armed with sjamboks, chasing people seen drinking alcohol on the side of the road.