COVID19 Community Diary – Sefikile
15th April 2020
Christinah Mogobye Sefikile Village
My fears and observations regarding COVID- 19
Honestly me as an individual I have been anxious and a bit scared sometimes but as time went by I adjusted. My family, friends and neighbours are feeling scared with the hope that scientists may find a solution, that’s what keeps them going.
Our day to day life has changed as children are not able to go to school and they are falling behind with school work. It is a challenge as children are no longer going to school and most parents relied on school lunches, however, they no longer worry about transport money for school, pocket money and other necessities so since we are not allowed to work, people resort to home-made meals like making bread instead of buying bread in order to save on groceries.
At least we are allowed to buy food but when it comes to transport it’s a challenge because special time system by the government in terms of public transport only allows public transport usage from 5am to 10am and then again 16h00 and people gather while waiting for transport and more they gather the more the virus spreads as they are packed in taxi ranks. People take advantage of this Lock down system, one of the taverns in our village (Sefikile) was broken into and liquor was stolen, I personally spoke to tavern owner who confirmed the incident, cops were called but so far no arrests have been made.
People are not fully following the rules as they have made home-made sanitisers also access of water is helping but unfortunately people are still roaming the streets and not practicing social distancing is not practices, people are not abiding by the rules on that in our village, also in shopping centres and taxi ranks there is no social distancing unless cops come and fortunately police are not harassing anyone except for doing their jobs in a humane way.
I suggest we as Activists and with the help of home-based care workers can contact Department of Social Development because home-based workers know many families as they deal with different families so they know the needy and disadvantaged families. I also think Tribal leaders must also make arrangements with the mine in terms of supporting our community.
