Responding to Covid-19 at street level: the challenges and solutions
Sindiswa Manxeba started a soup kitchen out of her home in Imizamo Yethu when lockdown started in 2020. She and her team help feed the children of the nearby school, who queue in the street.
Sindiswa, or Mama Manxeba as her neighbours know her, was born in the Eastern Cape and is in her 60s. Her energy is impressive, not just because she is as active and healthy as a much younger person, but because of the way she speaks about her work. She gets up at 5am, puts water on the stove, takes a bath and starts kitchen duties. When her team of five volunteers arrives at 8am, preparations are well under way. The one requisite in Sindiswa’s kitchen is to work with love, she says, because problems always arise that can lead to frustration and anger. “We don’t need that.”
When we visit her in Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay in the Western Cape, Mama Manxeba is pacing up and down the street in front of her house where children have started to queue to receive their meal. The first two arrived just after 1pm and by 1.30pm a line has formed and curves along the street. Sindiswa reminds the children to put on their masks and to practise physical distancing. Then she fills up a bucket with soapy water and asks each child to wash their hands and to get back in the queue. It’s a simple but careful procedure co-ordinated with three more women in the kitchen and two young men who help collect the containers the children have brought with them to store the food. Sindiswa asks the children to pray with her to give thanks and tells them, because it’s a long weekend ahead, they should only return on Tuesday.
She explains that at one point her team also distributed meals over weekends. This soon exhausted them, however, and they decided to keep the feeding schedule from Monday to Friday – with one exception. One of the neighbours’ kids, a four-year-old, became so accustomed to coming for food that Sindiswa found him knocking on her door on Saturdays and Sundays too. Not only that, but his mom reported that even when she was able to cook at home she had to make up a story about how it was Mama Manxeba’s food, otherwise he would not eat.
And it’s not just people from Molefe Street who enjoy Sindiswa’s cooking. We meet Nomthetho, who has brought a group of children from the other end of Imizamo Yethu, near the taxi rank. Nomthetho explains there are no soup kitchens near their school and so she walks 20 minutes with the kids to get to Mama Manxeba’s.
Sindiswa has lived in Molefe Street since 2008. She was among the first residents and speaks fondly of her street, which is clearly a vibrant space. Though narrow, there is a lot of activity. Crowds of people flood the space – chatting, shouting and greeting Mama Manxeba as they walk past her house. Sindiswa says she feels very safe on her street because “people are watching what she is doing” and they won’t let anyone take anything from her home. She says her neighbours are grateful, because there are no other community kitchens in the area.
Sindiswa has built strong relationships and her work has had a strong impact on her community. But she does acknowledge that the space could be better. She says she needs more room to be able to move and make more food, and that when it rains the children get wet because there is no shelter.
Lockdown has also given Sindiswa the opportunity to walk around and rediscover her neighbourhood. On the one hand, she has seen great need and realised that things are more difficult in other parts of Imizamo Yethu than she had thought. On the other, she has recognised that she has access to certain spaces that bring her joy and that there is great room to improve many of them so that people can feel more at home in their own neighbourhood.
For instance, she likes to walk the few blocks to iKhaya le Themba, an after-school care facility. It has a small park, which sits idyllically on a green patch with games and beautifully maintained containers. More than 100 children from around Imizamo Yethu have access to this space. She has also visited the library, the beach and the Hout Bay common playground. The latter is one of her favourite places – there are no cars and children are able to play safely. When she was there, Sindiswa was also able to use the outdoor gym equipment and was glad that it was not only for the young ones to enjoy.
Sindiswa reflects on the local police station and how during lockdown she has visited frequently to process her kitchen permit. Her experience has been positive, largely because she knows people at the station, yet she has realised there is great value in improving such spaces to make them more welcoming. “Years back we used to think it is a scary place but everyone is allowed to go in there.” Recently, they built a garden and Sindiswa says it was a really nice addition.
As in many other parts of Cape Town, the level of informality in Imizamo Yethu is high. During lockdown, this has increased as people try to find ways to make ends meet. Sindiswa says some of her neighbours set up hair salons at home or braai stands to sell meat. She recognises the need to enable this type of activity, particularly during a global pandemic and the economic crisis that has followed. Covid-19 has had a damaging impact on Imizamo Yethu, with unemployment rising and an evident need for food. “The last thing we need is law enforcement pushing people off the streets when they are trying to make a living.”