Residents Prohibited From Collecting Wood To Cook Because Of Lockdown. Due to the lockdown, people have been limited on what they can do. Most of the streets in other areas have been empty for weeks now.
Due to the lockdown, people have been limited on what they can do. Most of the streets in other areas have been empty for weeks now. Mona Sias, a woman from KwaNoxolo in the Eastern Cape, has been stopped by the police from collecting wood from a nearby bush. The woman now only has the option of cooking her family’s food with a fire made out of plastic bottles.
“Police chase us away from nearby bushes where we collect wood. I have been cooking rice, carrots, cabbage and mielie meal porridge with these plastic bottles. The food tastes horrible. It’s colour turns black on top because of the smoke. But we just cook to have something in our stomachs,” says Mona Sias. She went on to say getting the plastic bottles is also not easy because they have to get the bottles at illegal dumping sites. Mayor of Blue Crane Route Municipality, Bonisile Manxoweni, told GroundUp that she will raise the issue at the council meeting.
The homes share three taps with other households, and 11 toilets but only 5 toilets are operational. Simphiwe Blom, a community member in KwaNoxolo, says it was close to impossible to keep a good hygiene during the coronavirus period at the area. The community member says for about a month the toilet buckets were not changed. He then says that the toilets were changed on Wednesday when Amakhala Emoyeni Cookhouse Community Trust gave food parcels to the community members.
by Alexandra Ramaite
