Gauteng communities unite against the corona virus!
By Moeketsi Monaheng
Covid-19 known famously in different areas in South Africa as the ‘’corona virus’’ is said to originate from China. The whole world began to take serious notice of it when it started to spread over Europe and America. President Ramaphosa followed suit by ordering a national lockdown from the 26th March 2020. The preparedness of the citizenry can be observed to be different through different lenses. Lockdown experiences across the country clearly show how different communities cope with this national disaster.
Activists in Ivory Park report of how much retail shops have hiked their prices. This forces pensioners, disabled, and the sick to wait in long queues at accredited shops like Pick n Pay, Shoprite and Malls to access basic services. And before you know it, these long queues get infested by jackals and hyenas looking to rob.
BEER is still accessible in different Kasi’s and underground dealers are making a killing due to the principle of supply and demand. Each 750ml of Black Label goes for at least R30. We see people running from law enforcement when they see blue lights rather than being scared of the virus itself. It takes major police visibility for people to be on lockdown. The price of one egg is R2 from R1.50 a few weeks ago. This means households relying on pension grants, recycling, street trading and hustling begin to feel the pinch immediately. The historic call made by the Food Sovereignty Campaign to challenge the corporate control of food becomes evident. All this happened when the country had been downgraded to a junk status, not that, that even matters to the poor.
Different working groups get established as a response to any humanity disruption. During this digital media and 4th Industrial revolution era, you find oneself added to several national, provincial and local response WhatsApp groups. Very vital information gets circulated in these groups but at the same time, one has to be very vigilant what information to circulate around. Otherwise one will land in jail including the administrators of the groups themselves. Fake news is very disastrous in any battle.
What is more interesting is how community based organisations and grass root activists are responding to this disaster. This is where one needs to give salutations to the work being done by community activists like General Moyo in Makause who together with MACODEFO are assisting run awareness campaigns, basic human resources distribution, including much needed sanitisers and sanitation items.
Photo by General Moyo (Makause)
Much respect also should go to comrades in the South of Gauteng in Soweto who are making sure the grassroot people are well informed and basic gloves and sanitisers are accessible.
In Ivory Park, Midrand on the Northward-side of Johannesburg, an organisation called MSEECC runs awareness campaigns. They managed to distribute food worth R5000 to the total of 25 households on Wednesday, April 1. What catches one’s attention is how they selected the beneficiaries of the programme. Pensioners and child-headed households with no other means or source of income were prioritised. Some households rely primarily on recycling and the freedom of movement was restricted by the declaration of National State of Disaster.
Photo by Thabiso (MSEECC)
These households were in dire need of a leg up. One of the recipients, Sonto Sunday said on record that she was thankful of the efforts to assist poor families in times like these. Her food reserves were running really low and she was worried about travelling long distances to buy food. MSEECC worked with Goniwe police station Captain Makhoba in a food distribution campaign and they are aiming at doing it every Wednesday for different sections in the area. The group is making plans to work with Abahlali Basemjondolo’s Vusi Muzi, to assist local efforts to contain the virus.
Photo by Thabiso (MSEECC)
Simple and small actions like these go a long way in educating the community and reigniting the spirit of humanity. They are actions from the ground which plug different holes left by government regulations as response to COVID19.
