Nelson Mandela Bay: Hunger bigger than Covid?

First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.

The partial ban on alcohol sales, an earlier curfew and restrictions on public and religious gatherings announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday night as Nelson Mandela Bay was declared a Covid-19 hotspot have been widely welcomed by community leaders – but all said that unless the government dealt with extreme hunger, the stricter lockdown would also fail.

In the city people are breaking quarantine and isolation to go to work, as that is their only means of survival – and community leaders on Friday said Ramaphosa must address the city’s extreme hunger problem if he wanted to deal with the outbreak of coronavirus infections.

As of Friday, 4 December, Nelson Mandela Bay has been declared a coronavirus hotspot and additional restrictions have been placed on the city in terms of the national state of disaster.

The current number of active cases in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro is 3,852, and 1,763 people have died in the metro since the first outbreak in March. The current mortality rate is 145 per 100,000 and the fatality rate is 3.9%. The new number of cases has fallen to between 300 and 400 but concern has been expressed that this might be because of long delays at the testing laboratory.

Restrictions include that the sale of alcohol on Fridays and over the weekends would be banned; no on-site alcohol consumption at licensed facilities would be allowed after 10pm and no consumption of alcohol would be allowed at beaches and parks. Gatherings – including religious gatherings – may not be attended by more than 100 people for indoor events and 250 for outdoor events. At all times, the number of people in a venue may not exceed 50% of the capacity of the venue.

Community leader Julia Mbambo from Walmer Township, one of the metro’s hotspots, said hunger was a major threat to compliance in her area and people won’t stay in isolation.

“There is no provision made to help people who must go into isolation,” she said. “Many people have lost their jobs. Many were unemployed to start off with. People are very, very hungry,” she said. “The kids won’t stay indoors, they go around to hunt for food. They will hang around here until we feed them... People are forced into isolation but they don’t even have soap in the house,” she said. “They must work every day otherwise ... they will starve,” she said.

“It is scary because people in their areas complain when they see people leave the house before their 10 days of isolation is over. You see them coming out of their yards. There are so many people sick here, we have run out of food parcels to give those testing positive. We used to just drop it at their gates.”

Health worker Winky Mngqibisa said they would often see close contacts of people who tested positive for the coronavirus leave the house to go to work.

“The lack of food in our communities is a very big problem,” she said, “it is a matter of survival.”

“Compliance in our communities hasn’t really improved. Government will have to get tough and police this. We see the police are up and down in the streets but last week two people were gunned down at a shebeen in New Brighton after the midnight curfew and that shebeen is still open,” she said.

Municipal spokesperson Mamela Ndamase said the metro police would study the updated regulations with regard to alcohol sales and the earlier curfew.

Angry words were exchanged during the municipality’s final council meeting for the year after it emerged that the municipality’s customer care centres have been swamped in the past few days because thousands of residents had their electricity meters blocked.

Councillors across the political spectrum asked for residents to be given a reprieve to avoid long lines with no social distancing and large gatherings at customer service centres. Council speaker Buyelwa Mafaya said the issue of the meters was of great concern.

ANC councillor Rosie Daaminds added that the metro was a “national embarrassment” and she raised her serious concern that there were no points on the council agenda to deal with the resurgence of coronavirus infections in the metro. No decision was taken, however, because someone coughed and the councillors demanded that the meeting be suspended.

Community activist Gary van Niekerk said people were struggling to pay their rates because they couldn’t work during lockdown levels 5 and 4.

“Government understood then and gave us a window period. Now people can’t pay because they are still recovering. They are offering to pay off the debt because they can’t settle the whole amount. It is a fair arrangement,” he said.

Acting executive mayor Thsonono Buyeye said he welcomed the earlier curfew. He said the president’s announcement on alcohol sales was welcomed and he hoped this would ease the burden on the public hospitals.

“We believe that the measures taken will make sure that we deal with this surge in a short space of time,” he said. “Within no time we should be seeing the numbers decreasing and we believe that by the time Christmas comes some of the regulations may be relaxed already.

The president of the metro’s business chamber, Andrew Muir, said the sheer numbers of infected people were putting a great strain on the workforce in the city.

Premier Oscar Mabuyane also welcomed the announcement by the president. The provincial command council met on Friday to discuss the speedy implementation of the decisions that were announced, Mabuyane said.

The spokesperson for the Eastern Cape Liquor Board, Mgwebi Msiya, said they would continue their operations to ensure compliance but have had reports from tavern owners that patrons would simply refuse to wear masks, maintain social distance and sanitise their hands.

“Sadly, I must admit we haven’t really seen a dramatic improvement,” he said. “Even last week we still came across liquor outlets with a lot of overcrowding and people not wearing masks. People were drinking outside.

He said they were still studying the amended regulations to see if restaurants would be included in the partial ban on alcohol sales.

The president of the metro’s business chamber, Andrew Muir, said the sheer numbers of infected people were putting a great strain on the workforce in the city.

“One cannot ignore the health crisis. As a business chamber we have been extremely involved in trying to address the health crisis ... We are going to have to be strong when dealing with compliance around the Covid regulations otherwise we will just prolong the economic inactivity,” he said. “But whatever we do it will come at a cost,” he added.

“The upcoming festive season ... worries us ... It is the superspreader events that are the real challenge ... I think that is what the regulations are really aimed at.

“We have tried to appeal to residents many, many times ... Now the president and national government must step in

Van Niekerk, who is a community leader in Port Elizabeth’s Northern Areas, said things were really “getting out of hand”.

“There is scant regard for the lockdown regulations in our area. In certain instances people have no choice. Those who live on grants are not queueing to go into the clothes shops, they queue for the grant or for Home Affairs. So before we criticise we must look at where those queues are. It is for their survival. You can’t tell them to leave the money. They need the money to survive. They must choose between starving to death or running the risk. Obviously, they take a chance,” he said.

Reacting to new limits placed on religious gatherings, Pastor Neville Goldman said that when it comes to the essence of life it was wise to do this.

“The churches are not closed. It is only the buildings. Some congregations have remained online but in the impoverished areas this is difficult to do. The religious leaders in this city are needed to deal with the mental trauma caused by this outbreak. I myself buried eight people this week alone. I have to lead the memorial service of children who died of Covid-19. Now is the time for the church to be wise. This is an integrated pandemic. Hunger, the drought and unemployment are all stalking our streets,” he said. DM168

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