Potatoes are their meal

LOCKDOWN BLUES: FOREIGNERS TELL OF STRUGGLE TO MAKE ENDS MEET

Hairdressers, barbers, waiters and cashiers have not made an income.

Some foreign nationals in Sunnyside, Pretoria, have been trying to make a bag of potatoes last for as long as possible as the vegetable had become their only food during the lockdown.

Some were hairdressers, barbers, waiters and cashiers who have not made a cent since the shutdown to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Now sitting with a plate of cooked potatoes mashed with tomatoes, Enock Aruna had made a living by cutting hair mainly on the side of the road. He had been living in South Africa since leaving his home in the Democratic Republic of Congo about 10 years ago.

“Potatoes are the only thing we eat. Today I added tomato. I can’t even afford to buy food or fish. Whenever I get R30 or R50, I buy a bag of potatoes,” said Aruna.

He rents one of the rooms in a five-bedroomed flat along with his wife, one-year-old son and his nephew Cadeau Mauridi, who is also a barber.

Due to the lack of food, they have made a rule to only eat once a day.

“You decide if you will only eat breakfast, lunch or supper. You choose one. Then you can only have one cup of tea a day,” Aruna said.

“The landlord is also pushing us to pay rent. I haven’t been paying for two months.”

But another tenant Yvonne Useni was not so fortunate. Useni, 29, and her family had their belongings and clothes taken by their landlord as they also failed to pay two month’s rent.

Her brother, 16, whom she shares a room with along with her husband, was left with only the clothes on his back.

“All he is wearing is what you see now. This pair of jeans, this T-shirt and flops. That’s it. We all basically live outside now and only come up when we are offered to share and eat the potatoes that my neighbours cook.”

Yvonne and her husband left Malawi for South Africa two years ago while her younger brother had been in the country for eight months.

She worked at a restaurant but was not one of the staff who were called back when Level 3 lockdown started this week.

“I don’t want to go back to Malawi. There are no opportunities there and I am from a poor family.

I will wait for the lockdown to end so that I am able to send money back home,” she said.

But this was unfortunately common among foreign nationals in the country, which was why government should consider reopening the hair industry, said chairperson of the African Diaspora Forum Vusi Sibanda.

“Foreign nationals have not been receiving any [income]. That is why we are supporting the call for people who do hair to open for business.

“We hope the High Court judgment [to declare the lockdown rules unconstitutional] can be effected sooner.”

Foreign nationals, however, qualify to receive food parcels from government. All they had to do is register their details, said Gauteng social development spokesman Thabiso Hlongwane.

He said they must send their personal details to support@gauteng.gov.za in order to be considered for these benefits.

You decide if you will eat breakfast, lunch or supper