Chaotic lockdown experiences!

   

By:Mbalenhle Mbanjwa

Prudence Mjoli loves working although it limits her bonding time with her children.She would’ve loved to go to work, sadly she couldn’t due to the shutdown of some business enterprises. However, it gave her a chance to make up for all the time she has lost for bonding with her kids.

“This lockdown has been an eye opener in life but it has badly affected our future plans and our hustles.My business has been affected because for us to make money we rely on the customers and we also rely on this business for paying bills and putting food at the table. So the total shutdown really was a struggle because single parents like me were struggling as there was no means of income and those social grants were delayed but also not enough when received because food prices increased which led to few groceries being bought that quickly runs out in between a month”,she says.

Then the ANC and other prominent NGO’s saw the need to provide food parcels to Orange Farm’s community to help reach out to the needy. Delivering the food parcels house-to-house strictly adhering to the COVID-19 regulations of sanitizing,maintaining social distancing and the wearing of musks.

“One would certainly think that in devastating times like these,corruption would stop.However,out of all the 15 extensions of Orange Farm,only extension 7 got those food parcels and the rest didn’t. Residents complained and Thetha Fm (our local radio station) saw the need to discuss the allegations with the ANC Ward Counselors because it was stated that they shared the parcels amongst themselves for their families and sold the remaining to people at the street corners for lower prices than in the actual markets. The radio called them and they dropped their calls which made residents really angry. I myself was also angry,I still am angry even now but I took the decision to never ever vote for the corrupt and selfish ANC again!”, she says angrily.

Then the NGO’s stopped reaching out after hearing of corruption involved in the process.The community then decided to march against the corrupt ANC’s Ward Counselors and hell broke lose! Police threw grenades at them and shots fired which led to 207 being injured and 10 dead!

Lucas Meu-emu one of the Orange Farm’s residents argues that it is impossible to be in lockdown when there’s no electricity nor water. Especially because even tertiary students went back home and are expected to continue studying online, which requires electricity.

“It’s been months that many area’s of O.F like our’s have no electricity.Making it very much impossible for us to stay at home because it’s boring since we have no electricity for entertainment such as TV channels and social media platforms. We always have constant family fights as everyone is back home. Imagine having nothing to do for days and having no electricity at the same time.”he says.

For electricity it was understandable because O.F is one of many townships that owe Eskom a lot of money.Plus,every winter they get severe power cuts .This got out of hand in June when Rand Water stopped water supply.

“For many unemployed people like us, we rely on water and hygienic soaps for protesting us against the untouchable devil,yet they stop water supply. We then couldn’t wash our bodies, let alone our hands! How do they expect us to follow the Covid-19 regulations if they stop even water? We organized a march at the N1 golden highway for recognition. It then became a water and electricity march which also got out of hand as people robbed bakery and alcohol trucks.They closed in Eskom cars that entered using different routes and destroyed them. This time soldiers we sent, people were arrested and charged fines.Later, Eskom supplied electricity and Rand Water supplied water”,he says happily.

Rendani Ratshilumela an Orange Farm Police Station’s female detective states that since the start of lockdown our community has recorded 22 cases of Gender Based Violence. Of which only 6 of them victims and perpetrators died.

“One of the shocking cases are that of the 48 years woman and that of a 3 years old girl who were both raped, killed and thrown to yellow washing baskets and shoved under the bridge. We tried warning people to guard safe their children because they are always playing at the streets but after the incident other two young girls went missing and were found raped, killed and this time nailed to the road. It was traumatic!”,she says crying.

The community and intouch project held a 5 days march against GBV early July and the funerals were donated for. Celebrity Ntando Duma attended the funerals and took it to Instagram to urge people to stop GBV and support the movement. 

It has really been chaos in Orange Farm as people are faced with many challenges during this lockdown,but mostly it has made it clear that we fighting many things at once! God bless and heal our nation!