The CAOs have been at the frontline of dealing with the consequences of the nationwide lockdown introduced by the South African government at the end of March 2020 to slow down the spread of the Covid-19. We have received the following email from the KwaMakhutha CRC Advice Office: 

“During this lockdown the office decided to close as per the regulation from the government. However, we have continued receiving calls and visits at homes by the community members asking for assistance with food. Before the lockdown had been introduced most of people who are now asking for help were doing piece jobs or were self-employed and hence have lost their main source of income. KwaMakhutha CRC together with other local organizations decided to approach Department of Social Development (DSD) for the assistance. They told us that they have been already working with local councillors and they have given them 50 food parcels.

We then decided to approach local businesses, community members and farmers in the neighbourhood for assistance. Since then, we have been receiving donations of food from these people on daily basis. We have identified one place as a drop off for these donations. We do not receive much but the community has responded very well in dropping whatever they can donate. Recently, we have received donation of potatoes, butternut, maize meal and cabbage from the local farmer. We have started distributing the food parcels to the identified families to prevent the movement of people.  

We are now planning to open the office to assist communities to apply for Social Relief Grants to DSD. At the moment we have not experienced any violations of human rights in our community since we still have zero cases of COVID 19 infections and people are respecting the regulations imposed by the government. We have attached pictures of food parcels prepared by the Advice Office and its partners. We did not take pictures of our recipients in order to protect their right to dignity.”