‘Government is incompetent’ community members

The group claims the government failed to keep its promise to provide residents with food parcels and access to basic needs like water. The meeting also aimed at coming up with solutions to problems that resulted from Covid-19.

It has been eight months since President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a lockdown in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

A mother of three boys, Nokuzola Temele (38) from Sphamandla informal settlement in Katlehong, said she is mainly affected by unemployment after she got retrenched from her job at the beginning of the lockdown, but was compensated for her three months’ work.

“After I lost my job as an Early Child Development practitioner, I was working from hand to mouth. I started selling Atchar, but people would take the product on credit and not pay. It affected the business and I did not make any profit from it,” said Temele.

She said she did not receive any form of support from the government or local leaders and she urges South Africans to further their skills and talents to fight poverty.

“Support local business so they can grow and employ the same communities,” she said.

Alfred Diphoko (35), a resident from Zamkunupi East in Katlehong, said he was not badly affected by the lockdown as he was one of the fortunate to receive food parcels. He described the lockdown as a wake-up call, stating that he has been in lockdown for two years due to depression.

“During the discussions, I realised that everyone had problems and it is not just the youth. The elderly could not access health care, the youth could not advance their skills with e-learning due to lack of electricity and families were not catered for with food parcels for the entire lockdown. Corruption is taking our country backwards.

“I just learnt that our country borrows R2.1-billion a day and it scares me because this might lead the country into unrest as we witnessed in the past years. I don’t know what can be done. I’ve heard complaints about the government considering other nationals before South Africans in a time where unemployment and crime is high,” said Diphoko.

Diphoko added that communities must unite and challenge corruption, support their local economy as they cannot rely on the government for anything. People must understand their relationship with the government and use their power to remove corrupt councillors, he added.

African Monitor representative Philisiwe Mthimkulu said, “I understand that we are not here to give solutions because we don’t have the money to but at least we can draft memorandums to send to decision makers to say this is how people are struggling. A lot of the time when people come up with solutions there is no public participation,” Mthimkulu continued.

“How do you help people without knowing what they need? The aim of this meeting is to raise awareness and to take these documents to policymakers.”

Mthimkulu said it is hard to curb the spread of Covid-19 by regularly washing hands as they do not have running water or water tanks, as promised by the government.

The challenges community members experienced during lockdown include:

An increase in poverty.
Lack of access to health care.
Corrupt police officers and councillors.
No food parcels.
Lack of electricity which affected online learning.
Lack of job opportunities.
Toilets and water.
The ban on cigarettes.
Incompetent councillors.

Solutions suggested by residents:

Removing incompetent councillors.
Access to information and public participation by the government.
Food parcels should be distributed by social development agencies.
Community members should consider subsistence farming to feed their families.
Start workshops to address gender-based violence and share common problems.