About 50,000 workers in Joburg join millions who live off food parcels, but it’s not just the poor who are queuing
Pensioner Sisani Ncancema, 72, makes about R9 a day recycling plastic, to supplement her old-age pension. Because of the lockdown she has been unable to do this, and now also relies on food parcels to survive.Before lockdown, 72-year-old Sisani Ncancema would rise early to forage dustbins in Soweto for recyclable plastics.
Then she’d set off to make her walk of more than 3km to Goudkopies Landfill, earning about R9 for the day’s labour.Before food parcels were handed out in Elias Motsoaledi township in Soweto, chairs were placed far enough apart to ensure safe social distancing for elderly people.“It’s hard because the recycling prices have dropped and I can only carry a little bit a day, but it helps my pension.”
Ncancema is one of the 50,000-strong workforce in Johannesburg made up of cleaners, informal recyclers and piece-job workers. This workforce joins the estimated 30 million people who, according to SA Food Sovereignty Campaign co-founder Vishwas Satgar, need food aid to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. Her income allowed her to live a middle-class lifestyle with her partner in North Riding, till the day five weeks ago when the salon where she worked closed. The owner had just returned from China, and being in the high-risk group for infection, he decided to close shop.
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