The easing of lockdown has been music to many South
African ears, but for others it means little when they don’t know where their next
meal will come from. Meise* from Scottsdene is one of these people. She has been
left to roam and beg for food since the lockdown started.Â
She
does not want to be named for fear of facing a fine or being arrested if authorities learn she is breaking lockdown regulations. A
domestic worker, Meisie is married to a gardener who is also without work since
the lockdown.
There has been no income for the household since the lockdown, she says. As “day workers”, there are also no cash savings for a rainy day. Besides domestic work, Meisie also works a few days a week for the same garden-service as her husband.Â
Her son, who is in his 20s, is drug addict and does not
work – another mouth to feed. This has forced Meisie and her husband to ignore the stay-at-home
conditions in search of food. They do not use the main roads when leaving
Scottsdene because they are stopped and asked where they are going to.
“I have walked to the garden-services
owner a few times as he collected food for us from the people whose gardens we
service. We managed to get food for 10 days which was donated to him,” she says. “We have to walk through the field as we get stopped and
there are also no taxis during the day.”
Meisie fears walking through bushes, but there is simply
no other way, she says. “There is the risk of getting robbed walking through the field, because there are people that really
have no food at this stage.”
Their garden-service boss has
registered them for UIF, but, to date, they have not received anything. Meisie says he can’t pay his employees but is collecting food donations for them.
“We try to save and not eat all the cooked food in one
day. We do not have a fridge, so we cannot keep cooked food for long. Without a
fridge we have to buy meat and milk on a daily basis – if there is money for
it.”
On more than one occasion she’s risked an hour’s walk to
Brackenfell to ask the woman she chars for for money. She works there
every two weeks for a half day when she has free time from the garden-service
job. Since the lockdown, though, she has resorted to knocking on the woman’s door
more often in search of food. Â
“She buys me food and gives me the slip to show if I get
stopped,” Meisie says.